Perceived facilitators and barriers of E-learning from the perspective of medical students and professors of Tabriz Medical School during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Medical education has created many educational approaches to learning, including teacher-centered face-to-face lectures in the classroom. This particular approach to teaching methods can be manifested in the culture of education, pervasive in the organization or discipline, and lead to a reluctance to adopt new and emerging methods and technologies. Due to the Quaid pandemic, the existing facilities for teaching and learning e-learning have also changed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers and facilitators of e-learning from the perspective of medical students and faculty members of the medical school during the Covid 19 pandemic to help improve the e-learning process by examining the results.

Methods: This study included 140 students and 60 faculty members of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences who experienced teaching and e-learning during the corona epidemic. Data collection tools and methods included a questionnaire about the barriers and facilitators of e-learning during the Corona epidemic. Individuals' information was completed by data collection form. The obtained statistical data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical analysis software.

Results: Results: The most infrastructural and technical barriers from the students' point of view with completely agreeing opinion were inadequate university policies (73people-51.2%) and lack of technical support in case of problems (69people-49.3%), respectively. The most infrastructural and technical barriers from the point of view of professors with the agreed opinion included problems in connecting or disconnecting the Internet (34people-56.7%) and lack of technical support in case of problems (33people-55%), respectively; Most of the personal and communication barriers from the students' point of view with the completely agreeing opinion included concerns about the practical nature of some courses (61people-43.6%) and reducing the quantity and quality of communication and interaction with the teacher (66people-47.1%). While the most personal and communication barrier from the students' point of view with the agreed opinion included concerns about the practical nature of some courses (60people-66.7%). The most important facilitating factor for students was that they fully agreed with easy access to educational content (62people -44.3%) and according to professors, they agreed with the possibility of teaching at a suitable time and place (35people58.3%). Overall, 62.9% of students and 91.7% of professors stated that they want to benefit from e-learning and teaching in the future, which was significantly higher among professors (P value<0.001).