Students' attitudes about the quality and effectiveness of online compared to traditional teaching of histology and embryology during the COVID-19 pandemic

INTRODUCTION: The corona virus desease has led to numerous changes in all aspects of our lives. The educational system through numerous innovative learning methods managed the smooth conduct of distance learning. OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study is to examine the attitudes of medical and dental students about quality and effectiveness of online versus traditional teaching, in the course of Hystology and Embriology during the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The research was conducted online, with the help of a questionnaire designed on the Google Forms platform. The cross-sectional study included second-year students of medicine and dentistry at the Faculty of Medicine in Priština -Kosovska Mitrovica, who during the 2020/21 academic year followed online and classical classes in the subject Histology and Embryology. The results were processed using descriptive statistical methods and appropriate tests for testing the hypothesis about the significance of the difference between two, three or more samples. RESULTS: Out of the total number of surveyed students (n=60), 95% of students attended traditional classes, 88.3% of students attended classes via Zoom platform, while 85% of respondents used Moodle platform. The highest percentage of very satisfied (38.3%) and satisfied (51.6%) students was with traditional teaching. The percentage of available lecturers during online classes is 73.3%, and 76.7% during tradicional teaching. 75% of students believe that tradicional teaching can not be replaced by online teaching method. 68% of students used the literature and available presentations on the Moodle platform to prepare for the exam. A significant correlation was found in the case of satisfaction with the grade and the achieved success in the exam (p=0,001). CONCLUSION: The results of our research show that students preferred traditional over online teaching, which makes traditional teaching a primary and irreplaceable form of education.