1. HOW INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN CHINESE MEDICAL SCHOOLS PERCEIVE DISTANT LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
- Author
-
Wenlan Zhang and Mohammed AlGerafi
- Subjects
First contact ,Medical education ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,electronic learning ,media_common.quotation_subject ,e-courses ,General Engineering ,medical students ,virtual medical teaching ,Medical teaching ,Distant learning ,Distance Electronic Learning ,Perception ,Pandemic ,International students ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Social media ,China ,Psychology ,General Environmental Science ,media_common - Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess the perception of international medical students of e-learning in China, since medical teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic had to adapt to challenges, and students had to cope with the new teaching modality, more so international students. Therefore, the opinion of students with their first contact to a fully virtual education will be helpful to modify e-teaching to better suit the students’ needs. Method: Four hundred seven medical students, in China, were recruited via social media and were asked to complete structured questionnaires, regarding technical and content aspects of their e-courses. Findings: Most issues reported were of technical nature, especially for students attending the school distantly and network instability/unavailability was frequently (52.48%). Moreover, the audio was less helpful than texts/images and the senior students were less satisfied with the technical (0.005) and content (p=0.001) aspects. They also were more critical of their teachers’ performance (p=0.042). Clinical cases and scenarios also received the lowest score. Implications for research and practice: Overall students did not feel confident with the e-learning, comfortable implementing it to patients and were reluctant to embrace it. Both technical difficulties and understanding issues impeded international students from embracing e-learning medical teaching, in China and efforts need to be made to acclimatise them to this new reality.
- Published
- 2021