Assessing the sudden shift from classroom to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Students' perspective

Autor: Sahil Thakar, Swati Sharma, K P Anuradha, K K Shivalingesh, Mansimranjit Kaur Uppal, Shraddha Mishra, Priya Pokharel
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry, Vol 20, Iss 4, Pp 432-438 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2319-5932
2350-0484
DOI: 10.4103/jiaphd.jiaphd_189_21
Popis: Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has led all educational institutions to temporarily close and provide online learning to their students. Aim: This study aims to assess students' perspectives of such a “sudden shift” from classroom-based teaching methodologies to the use of online platforms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed among students across the globe using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling. The questionnaire was pretested, prevalidated, and contained 24 close ended and one open-ended question (s) divided into 4 sections. Data obtained were transferred to SPSS version 21.0 and on applying the Shapiro–Wilk test, data were found to be parametric. Therefore, the independent samples t-test and multivariate linear regression were applied to analyze the data keeping P value significant at ≤0.5. Results: Of the total of 715 responses received, most students belonged to India (35.2%) followed by Saudi Arabia (14.5%). Majority of them belonged to the dental background (30.2%) followed by medical (16.1%) and architecture (12.9%). 50.1% used their cellular data to access the Internet and 59.2% of students preferred using a mobile phone. 44.8% of students reported technical issues (P = 0.01), resulting in only 33.4% of the students being able to understand the entire lecture/activity completely (P = 0.01). 58.7% of the students did not prefer online learning (P = 0.03). Linear regression revealed a significant preference for offline learning between students pursuing all levels of education. Conclusions: Although students preferred offline learning, universities are encouraged to sensitize their students to online learning techniques so that they are prepared to “suddenly shift” to online learning due to a variety of reasons (pandemics, natural disasters, and chronic illness).
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals