PERCEPTION AND SATISFACTION TOWARDS VIRTUAL CLASSES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC AMONG NURSING STUDENTS IN SELECTED NURSING COLLEGES OF GUWAHATI, ASSAM: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted teaching in a variety of institutions, especially in medical schools. In many countries, typical face-to-face classes had to be suspended to ensure the safety of students, teachers, and patients. To minimize the impact of lockdown, medical schools had to nd another approach to teach medical students. Fortunately, current technology enabled electronic learning (e-learning) to be the core method of teaching the curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study was to assess the perception and satisfaction towards virtual classesAim: during COVID-19 pandemic among nursing students in selected nursing colleges of Guwahati, Assam. A crossMethods and materials: sectional research design was used to accomplish the objectives. Study was undertaken among 250 undergraduate nursing students in selected nursing colleges of Guwahati, Assam by using stratied random sampling technique. 3points Likert scale was used to assess perception and satisfaction among nursing students. Modied Health Promotion model was used as conceptual framework. Data analysis was done byResults: percentage and chi-square test. Out of 250 nursing students, domain wise 62.8% had good perception towards effective use of virtual classes, 50.8% had poor perception towards teaching methods, 53.2% towards communication, 53.6% towards materials and resources provided, 52.8% towards encouragement and nancial expenses. Whereas, 50% of the nursing students had good as well as poor perception towards the use of technology and 64.8% had good perception towards value of education. Domain wise result shows that, out of 250 students, 54% had low satisfaction towards fullment of needs/ expectations of students regarding theory and practical based virtual classes, 68.4% in teaching methods, 53.6% in class duration, 74% in communication, 67.6% in technology utilization had low satisfaction towards virtual classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was signicant association between gender, number of classes per day, any experience of virtual classes before pandemic, with level of satisfaction towards virtual classes among nursing students but no association was found with perception towards virtual classes. Through this study the investigator concluded that virtual classes are necessary to cooperate the desired changes in the eldConclusion: of education.