Advances in Medical Education and Practice (Jul 2022)

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Education: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia

  • Samannodi M,
  • Bulkhi A,
  • Alwafi H,
  • Bukhari R,
  • Salawati E,
  • Hafiz B,
  • Minshawi F,
  • Dahlawi M,
  • Kamfar S,
  • Halawani H,
  • Naser AY,
  • Mandora R,
  • Alshekh Ali M,
  • Almatrafi MA

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 13
pp. 741 – 754

Abstract

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Mohammed Samannodi,1 Adeeb Bulkhi,1 Hassan Alwafi,2 Rahaf Bukhari,2 Emad Salawati,3 Bayan Hafiz,2 Faisal Minshawi,4 Maryam Dahlawi,2 Sara Kamfar,5 Hanan Halawani,6 Abdallah Y Naser,7 Roaa Mandora,2 Mohamad Alshekh Ali,8 Mohammed A Almatrafi9 1Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia; 2Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia; 3Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia; 5Department of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 6Computer Science Department, College of Computer Science and Information Systems, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia; 7Department of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Isra University, Amman, Jordan; 8Department of Medicine, Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 9Department of Pediatrics, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Hassan Alwafi, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, 24381, Saudi Arabia, Tel +966555544319, Email [email protected]: As the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has made a tremendous impact on medical education and healthcare institutions, we aimed to measure effects of online classes on medical students’ comprehension in comparison with attending campus classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: A cross-sectional survey has been conducted between September 2020 and June 2021 in the western region of Saudi Arabia. The Convenience sampling technique was conducted to collect the data from medical students in their basic and clinical years, using a questionnaire that involved 45 multiple-choice and multiple-answer questions.Results: Out of 3700 questionnaires, 922 completed the questionnaires from 11 different medical schools. Umm AL-Qura University had the highest response rate with 232 responses (25.2%), followed by King Abdulaziz University with 186 responses (20.2%). The majority of institutions preferred Blackboard and Zoom as platforms for e-learning. A total of 355 (38.5%) believed that it resulted in higher academic achievement, whereas 555 (60.2%) of students believed the limitation of clinical access was one of the biggest disadvantages of e-learning. Overall, 518 (56.2%) of students did not want to continue using e-learning on its own in the future. Whereas 668 (72.5%) wished to keep using e-learning in combination with traditional learning.Conclusion: According to our findings, advantages of e-learning vary among students. Most of the students thought e-learning to be an interactive system that provides a learning opportunity. In contrast, many of the students believed that there were many disadvantages regarding online teaching methods.Keywords: COVID-19, e-learning, students, online, learning

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