Student's Perceptions Regarding e-Learning during Covid-19 at Private Medical and Dental Colleges of Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Covid-19 pandemic era introduce E-learning process in education system all over the world include medical science. Repeated researches should be conducted to explore the limitations and combat with the challenges of the E-learning process as well as find out the methods of suitable medical education system for future. Method: A cross-sectional study was performed among 334 MBBS (n = 114, 34.3%) and BDS (n = 218; 65.7%) students of four selected private Medical and Dental colleges in Bangladesh to reveal the perception of the students towards E-learning during the COVID-19 outbreak. Data was collected through an online platform using the snowball sampling technique in between October 2021 to March 2022. Result: Most of the participants use mobile phones (n = 308, 92.8%) and Wi-Fi connections (n = 153, 46.1%) for online classes. Majority of the participants had negative perception regarding E-learning. In addition, most of the participants responded that, E-learning is not better than traditional teaching (n = 292, 88%), the quality of E-learning is not satisfactory (n = 198, 59.6%), the usefulness of E-teaching regarding clinical and practical demonstrations is not satisfactory (n = 284, 85.5%), and the blend of E-learning will be beneficial in the future (n = 224, 67.5%), where female students (p = 0.049) and BDS students (p = 0.003) gave a more positive response in comparison to male students and MBBS students. BDS students gave more positive response about the satisfaction in quality of E-learning rather than MBBS students (p= 0.003). MBBS students significantly responded more negatively than did BDS students (p = 0.003) regarding student-teacher interactions during the e-learning process. Conclusion: Students adjusted themselves with the E-learning techniques but they believe that blending of E-learning, which combines both classroom and distance learning will be beneficial for them in future. The COVID-19 pandemic affects future approaches to teaching methodologies and changes to the medical education system. Update Dent. Coll. j: 2023; 13(1): 3-8