Online Clinical Learning Boon or Bane? Undergraduate Students’ Perspective

Author(s): Pramila Menon, Vineeta Pande, Sudhir Jadhav, Sharad Agarkhedkar

Introduction: E-learning is use of electronic tech-nology as a teaching-learning method to foster self-directed and collaborative learning.

Materials and methods: The study was planned through Google forms with semi structured quest-ionnaire to understand usefulness of platform for clinical skills, challenges faced and suggestions for improvement. Data was recorded on a Google excel sheet and analyzed using SPSS version 26.

Results: The sessions were attended by 166 students out of 250 on Google classroom and video sessions. The response rate was 71.4%% (95 CI 67.5-75.8), 81% (95 CI 67.5-75.8) were happy with online teaching-learning in respect to lectures, 52.9% (95 CI;47.3-58.6) are using Google Classroom, 32.2% (95 CI;27-37.6) video based platforms, 53.6% (95 CI; 48-59.2) viewed Google Classroom as the best platform while 44.1% (95 CI;38.5-49.7) favoured video based platforms. Students felt online teaching is suitable for classes which are theoretical in nature, but they are not very useful for practical clinical training. They liked flexibility and ownership of resource material. E- learning was perceived by 64% students as not fruitful, 48.8% students not helpful them to learn clinical skills and 52.5% students reacted it is not boon but creating anxiety in their mind. Some expressed their feelings as online clinical training is useless (64%).

Conclusion: We conclude that online teaching is possible and acceptable as a complementary method to the traditional or conventional method of medical teaching in India as a normal part of the curriculum, irrespective of the lockdown period. The blended learning mode will be the best solution.