Experiences of international medical students enrolled in Chinese medical institutions towards online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction . The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world to pause. One hundred and eighty-eight countries have imposed countrywide school closures, affecting more than 1.5 billion children and youths. The majority of academic leaders are currently encouraging online education to resolve this crisis. This study aimed to investigate international medical students’ (IMS) experiences of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Data were collected online using a validated questionnaire and one open-ended question, presented on the Google forms platform. The study attracted responses from 1,107 IMS volunteer participants. IBM SPSS v. 25, GraphPad Prism v. 9, and MindManager v. 2018 were used for data analysis. All variables were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. The Mann–Whitney U test was used in subgroup analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test was also applied for year-wise comparisons. Open-ended text responses were analyzed qualitatively, extracting themes by which responses were classified. Results Among 1,107 respondents, a total of 67.8% were males, and the majority (63.1%) of the IMS were in the age group of 21–23 years. The results show that more than half of the respondents reported their Internet connection quality as poor to average. Poor Internet connection severely affected IMS online learning experience. Persistent and recurrent issues with Internet access became a significant concern for IMS. Lack of electricity is one of the factors that can contribute to poor learning output and dissatisfaction with online teaching. IMS perceive online medical education as unhelpful in several phases of the training, such as improving their clinical skills, knowledge, and discussion skills. Conclusions During these unprecedented periods, online teaching has allowed medical education to continue. However, IMS are generally dissatisfied with online teaching. Medical students must visualize the human body, so supportive technologies are important to compensate for the lack of clinical practices. Medical institutions may need to invest in faculty training programs and continually adjust to enhance the content of online training and international partnerships. A switch from conventional face-to-face teaching to a fully functional virtual education framework in the medical education field will take time and experience.

International medical students’ perspectives on factors affecting their academic success in China: a qualitative study

“…This study revealed that the mode of online teaching and learning, while having a few positive features such as flexibility in study time, was a poor substitute for learning in a traditional classroom setting. This is in consonance with the findings of recent studies showing that the majority of international medical students were dissatisfied with online classes at Chinese universities [ 73 , 74 ]. Before China allows its international medical students back for face-to-face learning, hosting institutions should attach importance to enhancing the quality of their online teaching [ 74 ].…”

“…This is in consonance with the findings of recent studies showing that the majority of international medical students were dissatisfied with online classes at Chinese universities [ 73 , 74 ]. Before China allows its international medical students back for face-to-face learning, hosting institutions should attach importance to enhancing the quality of their online teaching [ 74 ].…”

Clinical preceptorship in Ghana in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: an interventional study

“…These barriers have also been identified in other studies [ 20 , 23 , 28 – 31 ]. For instance, in a study conducted among international medical students in China, poor internet connectivity was cited as a major challenge the students and some faculty encountered during their online sessions [ 32 ] Moreso, studies in high-income economies have reported similar challenges regarding students online learning [ 31 , 33 ]…”

New Normal: Emergence of Situational Leadership During COVID-19 and Its Impact on Work Motivation and Job Satisfaction

“…COVID-19 has affected governments globally, and societies are experiencing an odd situation; after the global pandemic, this situation led to a global crisis that touched the aspect of our lives, including family, education, health, work, and the relationship between leaders and followers in our society (Hinojosa et al, 2020 ; Aslam et al, 2021 ; Parveen et al, 2022a ). Organization leaders play a critical role in framing employee experiences at the workplace during and after the pandemic as they adapt to work on new realities (Ngoma et al, 2021 ).…”