Face-to-Face or Online Learning in Applied Statistics in Health Sciences? Failed Experiment or Opportunity after COVID-19?

Abstract

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 worldwide led to the migration of the traditional education system based on the face-to-face classroom into an improvised online system, among many other preventive measures. Thus, all teaching methods had to be adapted to this new modality. This work is aimed at studying the viability of the online teaching of the subject of Applied Statistics in Health Sciences in higher education based on the teaching experience lived during COVID-19. In addition to this, possible technological difficulties and COVID-19-derived problems were investigated. A retrospective observational cross-sectional study was performed to analyze the students’ satisfaction according to the teaching methodologies in both face-to-face and online modalities. An exploratory and inferential analysis revealed that online teaching is feasible for the subject under study, although face-to-face learning still continues to significantly revert in favor of the quality of teaching. Therefore, further research is required to develop new online teaching methods given the feasibility of the proposal found in this research. Most of the students reported not having technological learning difficulties, whether related to their connectivity or technological resources, which did not have a significative impact on their teaching perception. Despite the psychological sequalae of COVID-19, this did not affect the students’ teaching satisfaction.

Introduction to the Special Issue “Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Lockdown and Its Implications for Higher Education Institutions: An International Perspective”

“…Pika and Reddy's findings indicate that home conditions, individual characteristics, pre-COVID-19 blended learning experiences, university training and support, teaching, learning, assessment practices, and policies altogether contributed to the exclusion of low-income students from active teaching and learning, equipping middleclass students with better chances of success compared to working-class students, and distressing female students and lecturers more than it distressed their male counterparts. A study from Spain [19] studied the viability of the online teaching of the subject of applied statistics in health sciences in higher education. Gutiérrez and colleagues showed that online teaching was feasible for the subject under study, although face-to-face learning continued to be reverted to a significant degree in favor of the quality of teaching.…”