Impact of covid-19 pandemic: Perception of clinical year medical students on transition of traditional to online lectures in a medical university of Karachi, Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the perception of clinical undergraduate MBBS students of online lectures in a medical university of Karachi, Pakistan. Study Design: Descriptive Study. Setting: Bahria University Medical and Dental College. Period: May 2020 till July 2020. Material & Methods: Four weeks after introduction of online lectures. Data was collected from clinical year students over two weeks using Google forms and analysed using SPSS version 22. Result: Of 450 clinical year students, n=234 responded. Overall, 48.7% (n = 114) students were satisfied with the online lectures, 34.2 %( n= 80) were completely satisfied and 17.7 %( n=39) were unsatisfied. 53.4 %( n=125) felt lectures were serving the purpose whereas 37.2% (n=87) do not feel the same. The lack of interaction component in online lectures was felt by 45.7% (n=107) students. Regarding clinical teaching, 72.2% (n= 170) do not think it is possible online, 15.8 (n=35) feel it possible and 12.4% (n=29) were hopeful. Majority 61.1% (n=143) think it is impossible to complete medical studies online. Student ideas for improvement included availability of lecture recording for later viewing, integrated quizzes, increasing interactive component, training of faculty, small group sessions and case based teaching. Majorly students faced internet connectivity issues and timings of long lectures without break. Conclusion: Online lectures can be improved by reducing the issues faced by students, providing them easy internet access, faculty training programs to make interactive and case based presentation and quizzes.