PERCEPTION OF UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS TOWARDS VIRTUAL LEARNING AND CLASSROOM LEARNING

Abstract

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) declared Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a public health emergency and global pandemic on March 11, 2020. This outbreak has led toa complete lockdown and has changed the educational delivery system across the world from traditional classroom learning (CL) to virtual learning (VL). This study was conducted to assess the perception of dental students towards virtual and classroom learning. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among undergraduate dental students from the first year to the final year over a period of February 2021 to April 2021.A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The results were analysed for descriptive statistics using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20 software. Results: Of the 143 total participants, “learning at their own pace was the main advantage of VL 97(67.8%). A majority reported that CL was either effective 68(47.7%) or extremely effective 28(19.6%) for increasing knowledge, while only 31(21.7%) and 2(1.4%) agreed that VL was effective, and extremely effective respectively. For preclinical, clinical, and social skills, more students believed that CL was effective compared to VL (48.3% vs 3.2%, 50% vs 6.1%, and 48.9% vs 0% respectively). Nearly half of the participants 68(47.6%) had neutral responses towards the incorporation of VL in the undergraduate curriculum. Conclusions: The majority of the students preferred classroom learning compared to virtual learning and only nearly half of the students have a neutral response toward acceptance of virtual learning.