E- Learning experience of the medical profession’s college students during COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background Worldwide, most of educational institutions have moved to online electronic learning methods because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 8, 2020, the Saudi Ministry of Education announced remote learning for public and private schools and universities as a preventive and precautionary measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The objective of this study was to explore the e-learning experience of the students of the colleges of health sciences with regard to the technical preparedness, academic achievements, e-learning advantages and limitations. A well-structured and validated questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale and open-ended questions about their e-learning experience was distributed to a heterogeneous purposive sample of the health sciences students in Saudi Arabian universities. Results Of the 1288 respondents, of various demographical features a relatively higher proportion of 58.2 % agreed that they had enough information about the online learning. However, the proportion who reported receiving adequate guidance, technical support, and having satisfactory hardware and internet access to online learning were 48.1 %, 42, and 35.4 %, respectively. Of all participants, 40.8 % agreed that they had gained a good understanding of their courses learning outcomes. Only 30.0 % agreed that the quality of the online teaching was similar to traditional classes and 56.1 % agreed that the online learning is unsuitable for the medical sciences studies. E-learning advantages mentioned were the flexible accessibility of the learning materials, time, effort, and money saving, acquiring and improving technical and self-learning skills, health safety, interaction without shyness, and better academic accomplishment. On the other hand, disadvantages and difficulties included inadequate tools to facilitate online learning, poor internet connection, lack of technological skills by the educators and students. In addition, there was inadequate or lack of practical classes, lack of a unified clear policy for the conduct of online classes and exams and grade distribution, limited online exam time. Conclusions The sudden shift to e-learning without prior preparedness has revealed some pitfalls that need to be adjusted. The initial findings were considered satisfactory for such a new experience for both learners and students. However, there is a great chance for improving and expanding the e-learning process.

Use of Alternative Methodologies in Veterinary Medicine Learning and Acceptance of Students

“…Although the application of these new methodologies, mainly MOOCs, has its advantages and disadvantages [51,52], these new teaching methods can significantly improve the learning and motivation of our students, also taking into account individualized learning [53,54]. Our results show a high acceptance by the students, according to the results of other authors [25,55]. In fact, interactive videos in the virtual visit case have been shown to improve the acceptance and motivation of veterinary medicine students.…”

Students’ Perceptions of Online Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Approach

“…Others reported advantages include the ease of sharing educational materials, effective access to study resources, updated learning materials, and flexibility in time and space [55][56][57]. Further studies also mentioned protecting one's health and ensuring the community's safety, saving travel time, exposing one to new forms of learning, keeping up with the original plan of the semester, having extra time for self-study, and easy access to online resources [38,58], as well as the ability to stay at home, continuous access to online materials, the opportunity to learn at one's own pace, and comfortable surroundings [36].…”

Teaching faculty perceptions, attitudes, challenges, and satisfaction of online teaching during COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A national survey

“…Although, Elliott et al (2015) reported increased workload due to more time needed to prepare online teaching materials, our results show otherwise with only 12% of respondents reporting spending relatively more time preparing for online teaching than they would need for face-to-face teaching. This is intuitive as online learning standards for higher education in the KSA were built according to the best standards that include the provision of cuttingedge technology, training and support, and accessibility (Al Zahrani et al, 2021). However, the current system has a room for improvement which could improve students' and staff 's perception and experience as well as the effectiveness of online teaching.…”