Background: On account of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), education in higher institutes was strongly affected and they were shut down. The education shifted from “face-to-face” learning to online learning in the dental universities. The aim of this study was to assess the students' perspective on the implementation of online learning due to COVID-19, using a questionnaire-based survey in India. Materials and Methods: The authors sent out an electronic survey to the undergraduate dental students from October 17, 2020 to October 25, 2020. The online questionnaire had a combination of multiple-choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions which gave insight into the demographics, access to technological sources, didactic benefit, study habits, perceived issues with e-learning, conduction of examinations during the pandemic period, and their mental health. Students were also asked for their views on the inclusion of online learning in the future curriculum. Qualitative data was expressed as number and percentage. A comparison was performed using Chi-square test. Kruskal-Wallis test was done for Likert scale questions and Bonferroni test was used for post hoc comparisons. Results: Among 2319 dental students, 63.9% exclusively used smartphones and 8.5% used laptops for classes. The rest of the students used both devices. To access online resources, about 2262 (97.5%) had Internet connection. Only 943 students (40.7%) did not encounter any difficulty while engaging in online learning. About 1466 students (63.2%) appeared for examinations. About 1261 students appeared offline for both theory and practical examinations. Fifty-five percent of the participants felt offline examinations to be a better alternative. About 69.6% of students preferred “face-to-face” learning instead of solely online learning. Nearly 19.4% of students wanted online education to be continued, while 28.5% wanted to keep both offline and online courses in the future curriculum. Most frequently encountered problems were difficulty in adjusting to new learning styles, having to perform responsibilities at home, and poor communication between educators and learners. Conclusion: Students showed a little reticent attitude towards on the implementation of online learning and were hopeful of engaging in online learning after improvisation in the future curriculum.

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the impact and challenges of emergency remote teaching faced by the dental faculty during the first and the second wave of COVID-19 in India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire study was carried out consisting of two surveys. Data for the first questionnaire was recruited from 135 faculty members engaged in online teaching and comprised details about sociodemographic, designation, teaching experience, online teaching practices, perceptions, and challenges faced by the faculty members during online teaching during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India. Categorical variables were reported as counts and percentages. Group comparisons were made with the Chi-square test. The same participants were given the second questionnaire to access their efficacy in overcoming the challenges faced by them during the second wave. Results: 54.8% of the participants were female. 46.7% of respondents were Professors by designation. Variation was evident for the personal, technical, financial barriers and challenges caused by students' attitude with designation as a variable. 67.4% of the participants devoted extra time to prepare their lectures. 62.2% of the faculty faced network issues. 53.3% of the faculty reported increased expenditure on data. Maximum challenges were seen in the category based on students' attitude which deteriorated the quality of the lectures. 74.1% of the teachers agreed that online teaching was better for theoretical learning. There was not much difference observed in the response regarding personal barriers among faculty members with gender as a variable in the first wave, but notable differences were seen for technical barriers, especially lack of formal training. During second-wave study, Internet connectivity still remained a barrier. Conclusion: Challenges faced by the faculty members regarding online learning decreased in the second wave as compared to the first wave, but network connectivity and students' attitude remained an issue. Scope of theoretical online teaching was perceived to be better as compared to practical teaching.