Evaluation of utility and usefulness of webinars on COVID-19 management: a questionnaire-based survey

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequent “social distancing” has fueled the use of social media platforms for educational purposes. Since the start of the pandemic, a plethora of experts and self-proclaimed experts have been keenly delivering webinars on COVID. This begs the question “Do webinars on COVID-19 really help in the improvement of knowledge base or management skills?”. The questionnaire was designed to assess information regarding COVID-webinars and their usefulness from the end-user standpoint. The response to the questions was measured using a 4- or 5-point Likert scale. The survey was open for a 4-week period with the extension of 1 week. Results The response rate was 54% as 270 out of 500 participants responded to the questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were anesthesiologists in-training, post-graduates, fellows, and seniors belonging to tertiary care settings with fewer percentages belonging to physicians and others. Most of the doctors had attended an average of 2 webinars per week. The tests of model effects showed a significant negative correlation of webinar quality ratings for district hospital healthcare setting of the attendees (of p value of 0.013) and for the number of COVID-related webinars attended per week (p value of 0.009). Conclusions Most respondents had favorable perceptions of webinars happening during the pandemic. However, there is a need for improvisation in the volume of webinars, target-audience-based delivery, and participant interaction to add value to this new dimension of teaching-learning.

Learning to Prevent and Break the Chain of Transmission of Covid-19 by Vaccinate Women, Pregnant and Breastfeeding Mothers Through the Webinar

“…The structure of the interactive procedure given during the webinar makes the data received to be more reliable and actual to provide an overview of the results representing the population. Based on the results of this study, there is an increase in understanding before and after the webinar, in line with research by Gupta et al (2021), who stated that the teaching method through webinars gave a positive perception of the material, besides that the results presented showed a better impression compared to conventional seminars. (14) Counseling through webinars can be a promising alternative compared to conventional methods.…”

“…Based on the results of this study, there is an increase in understanding before and after the webinar, in line with research by Gupta et al (2021), who stated that the teaching method through webinars gave a positive perception of the material, besides that the results presented showed a better impression compared to conventional seminars. (14) Counseling through webinars can be a promising alternative compared to conventional methods. Locations and interactive support tools such as mobile phones or laptops adapt to webinar participants become advantageous.…”

“…A final vote to evaluate the webinar and confirm the knowledge gained by the participants, their interests, suggestions, and challenges will help the organizers improve the webinar in the future. (14)…”

“…They expect to leave in the education system the knowledge and skills that may need to be used in the labor market to have lifelong learning skills. (14) As the way we provide information about COVID changes overnight, everyone needs to adapt to new situations and learn new technologies, time management, communication, and refinement. The challenges of medical education caused by pandemics have made alternative teaching and learning methods such as online courses and webinars more and more popular.…”

The Extent of the Utilization of Teachers on Their Learning Derived From the Webinars Attended During the New Normal

“…Still, the key aspects that may need to be addressed during the webinar include target-audience-based delivery, uniqueness of the content, and better presenter-attendee interaction. These changes may add value to this newly added dimension of learning, which had been less explored in the pre-COVID era (Gupta et al, 2021).…”