Original Article

Perceptions of students regarding E-learning

during Covid-19 at a private medical college
Sahar Abbasi1, Tahera Ayoob2,
Abdul Malik3, Shabnam Iqbal Memon4
ABSTRACT
Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of students towards e-learning
during the lock down.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry.
MBBS and BDS students of all levels participated in the study with a sample size calculated as 377. A self-
administered questionnaire was developed. After validation from the Medical Education Experts, pilot test
was run on 30 participants before the administration of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was emailed
to the participants for data collection. Reliability of the questionnaire was determined. Independent T-test
was applied for determining the perceptions of students towards e-learning. Frequencies and percentages
were also computed for demographics.
Results: Total 382 responses were received.137 males and 245 females participated in the study. 0.851
was calculated as Cronbach’s alpha of the questionnaire. Overall, 77% students have negative perceptions
towards e-learning. 76% of the students use mobile device for their e-learning.
Conclusion: Students did not prefer e-teaching over face-to-face teaching during the lock down situation.
Administration and faculty members should take necessary measures for improving e-teaching for better
learning during lock down.
KEYWORDS: Covid-19, E-learning, Face-to-face teaching, Perceptions.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2766
How to cite this:
Abbasi S, Ayoob T, Malik A, Memon SI. Perceptions of students regarding E-learning during Covid-19 at a private medical college. Pak
J Med Sci. 2020;36(COVID19-S4):COVID19-S57-S61. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2766
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Dr. Sahar Abbasi, MCPS-HPE.

INTRODUCTION
2. Dr. Tahera Ayoob, FCPS (OMFS).
Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery,
3. Dr. Abdul Malik, , MD & DCN (Neurology).
The magnanimity of information technology’s
Department of Medicine, influence on multiple aspects of our lives today
4. Dr. Shabnam Iqbal Memon, cannot be refuted, neither can its growing
1,4: Department of Medical Education,
College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan.
popularity and use in the education sector be
2,3: Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry, denied.1 This role in the academic arena has gained
Karachi, Pakistan. importance furthermore considering the ongoing
Correspondence: Covid-19 pandemic  causing all educational
Dr. Sahar Abbasi, MCPS-HPE. institutions the world over to close down and thus
Deputy Director, Dept. of Medical Education, giving rise to multiple challenges at all stages and
College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, levels of education in particular for students.2 The
Baba-e-Urdu Road,
Karachi, Pakistan. flourishing innovative technologies and learning
Email: [email protected] management systems both for teaching and
* Received for Publication: April 24, 2020
assessment have taken a headway  providing a
* 1st Revision Received: April 28, 2020 utilizable solution for educators and giving policy
* 2nd Revision Received: May 2, 2020 makers an opportunity to implement the use of
* Final Revision Accepted: May 5, 2020 information technology during the quarantine

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 Sahar Abbasi et al.

days for covering the course work.3 Stakeholders dated April 18, 2020), a cross-sectional descriptive
involved including institutional administrators, study was conducted in April 2020 on the students
teachers, students, etc. are making considerable of Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry.
efforts to optimally utilize the available technology Total strength of students in the College was 800
for continuing the process of education and consisting of 300 BDS and 500 MBBS students.
minimizing the gaps that are going to result as a Raosoft software was used for calculating the
consequence of the current circumstances.1,4 sample size.13 Keeping the margin of error at
There are several studies based on the significance 3.68%, confidence interval at 95% and population
and efficacy of implementation of e-learning.1,3,5 size of 800, the sample size was calculated as 377.
Many universities across the world are promoting Convenience sampling technique was used to select
it as a teaching method and it is being widely the participants for the study. A self-administered
appreciated by the learners.5,6 There are numerous questionnaire was developed through literature
reasons for its overall acceptability; few of them search. It had 23 items all together. The scale
particularly applicable in case of learners are its was based on 5-point likert scale: 1- strongly
disagree, 2- disagree, 3- Somewhat agree 4-agree,
ease of use, flexibility and better control over the
5- strongly agree. 5 items of the questionnaire
environment. However, in spite of its multiple
covered demographics, one item was to determine
advantages there are quite a few limitations of
the choice of gadgets used for e-learning, 17 items
e-learning such as social isolation, lack of student-
of the questionnaire determined the positive
teacher interaction and connectivity issues etc.7-9 and negative perceptions of students towards
Despite the wide-based adoption of e-learning e-learning. Ten of the 17 items were negatively
the world over, it was never considered as a part worded and were reversely scored. Before
of formal education in Pakistan by majority of the administration of the questionnaire, validation
institutions until the spread of Covid-19 recently.9,10 by two medical educationists was done. Pilot test
Due to the lockdown situation however, now a was also run on 30 participants. Reliability of the
lot of schools, colleges and even undergraduate questionnaire was calculated and turned out to be
medical and dental institutes across the country 0.85.
are moving towards e-learning. Medical and For further understanding of the data, 17 items
Dental Colleges’ administrators and teachers are of the questionnaire were grouped into 5 categories
taking appropriate measures to conduct effective such as Future learning preference, E-teaching
e-learning via e-lectures, e-tutorials, e-case based is better than traditional teaching, Quality of
learning, etc. so that continued education can be e-teaching is satisfactory, Impact of e-learning is
provided without getting much affected during less, Student-Teacher interaction (isolation has
the quarantine period.7,8,11 Also various e-teaching increased), Online teaching is not secure. The
softwares are being explored by teachers to bring questionnaire was emailed to all the students for
maximum possible ease for their students. the collection of data. Written informed consent
Considering the relatively recent advent of this was also taken from the participants.
teaching methodology in Pakistan, both teachers SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis.
and students are still in the process of getting A Mean was calculated for 17 items with scores
acquainted with the new system.9 At this point in ranging from 17-85. The Mean score came out to be
time, it is important to find out students’ opinion 43. Those who scored less than the Mean (less than
and viewpoint regarding this virtual approach to 43) were considered having positive attitude and
teaching and learning. Whether the learners are those with score of more than 43 were considered to
attuned to the new methodology, would prefer have negative attitude towards e-learning. 17 items
any modifications, or rather would want to go were divided into 5 groups with following mean
values where less than mean would depict positive
back to conventional learning altogether, would
and more than mean negative attitude:
be an interesting point to explore.7,12  Therefore,
• “Future learning preference” - 5 items (Score
the purpose of this study was to determine the
min 5 & max 25, Mean 13),
perceptions of students towards e-learning during
• “E-teaching is better than traditional teaching”
the lock down due to covid-19.
-4 items (Score min 4 & max 20, Mean 10),
METHODS • “Quality of e-teaching is satisfactory”-2 items
(Score min 2 & max 10, Mean 5),
After taking approval from the Ethical Review • “Impact of e-learning is less”-1 item (Score min
Committee of the College (Ref.No.EC/33/20, 1 & max 5, Mean 3)

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 Perceptions of students regarding E-learning

Table-I: Demographics and choice Independent T-test was applied for data analysis.
of gadgets used for e-Learning. Frequencies and percentages were computed for the
demographics. Cronbach’s Alpha (reliability) was
Frequency Percentage % also determined for all items of the questionnaire.
Gender RESULTS
Male 137 35.9%
Female 245 64.1%
A total of 382 MBBS and BDS students
participated in the study. The demographics of the
Discipline
participants along with the choice of gadgets used
MBBS 204 53.4%
for their e-learning are shown in Table-I. It was
BDS 178 46.6% found that 76% of the students use Mobile for their
Year e-learning. 75.7% of the students have negative
First year 97 25.4% perceptions towards e-learning
Second Year 87 22.8% The overall perception and category wise
Third Year 81 21.2% responses of students towards e-learning
Fourth Year 88 23% along with their respective p-values are shown
Fifth Year 29 7.6% in Table-II. As computed in the pilot study
Choice of Gadget/Device of 30 responses the reliability score of the
Mobile 289 75.7%
questionnaire was 0.851.
Computer 3 0.8% DISCUSSION
Laptop 81 21.2%
Tablet 9 2.4%
Our study indicates that out of 382 students, 76%
of them used mobile gadgets for their e-learning.
• “Student-Teacher interaction (isolation has 77.4% students showed negative perception
increased) - 1 item (Score min 1 & max 5, Mean about e-learning, out of which 86% students felt
3), e-learning has little impact on their learning.
• “Online teaching is not secured-1 item (Score Majority of the students preferred face to face
min 1 & max 5, Mean 3). teaching over e-teaching. The key outcome of the

Table-II: Overall perception and category wise responses of students towards E-learning N=382.

Responses N (%) Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean p-value

Positive 86 (23%) 37.5455 6.27540 1.09241

Overall perception 0.015
Negative 296 (77%) 58.7249 8.16173 0.43689
Positive 86 (23%) 4.2791 0.86298 0.09306
Future learning preference 0.000
Negative 296 (77%) 7.9392 1.38626 0.08057

E-teaching is better than Positive 56 (15%) 8.5000 1.82906 0.24442

0.000
traditional teaching Negative 326 (85%) 14.7546 2.56387 0.14200

Quality of e-teaching is Positive 119 (31%) 7.6134 0.66523 0.06098

0.000
satisfactory Negative 263 (69%) 10.2586 1.28470 0.07922
Positive 327 (86%) 18.2508 2.87118 0.115878
Impact of e-learning is less 0.000
Negative 55 (14%) 11.4545 1.87398 0.25269
Student-Teacher Positive 320 (84%) 2.2875 0.63727 0.03562
interaction (isolation has 0.000
increased) Negative 62 (16%) 4.1935 0.39830 0.05058

Online teaching is not Positive 241 (63%) 1.9149 0.28003 0.02358

0.000
secure Negative 141 (37%) 3.9087 0.77994 0.05024

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 Sahar Abbasi et al.

result shows that the students are not yet ready for teaching. It was noted that online teaching was
e-learning. not secure as incivility was considered as a major
Mobile has become one of the most popular issue that was detrimental to students’ privacy, as
devices among students for e-learning as compared is evident in our findings also.26
to laptops and tablets.14 In one of the studies There are several studies on the comparison of
conducted on university students,15 it was found e-learning with face to face teaching.27,28 In one of
that 66% use mobile devices for e-learning, which is the papers presented in a conference on mobile
very similar to our study that shows 76% students learning at Singapore, it was reported that there is
prefer mobile devices. A research conducted in no significant difference between the performance
Spain revealed that students chose mobile for of students taught by e-learning and face to face
their learning because student-teacher interaction learning, whereas in our study it was found
through mobile was much easier as compared to that e-learning is perceived to have little impact
other devices.16 Another very common reason for compared to face to face learning as indicated
this is that learning can take place anytime and by 86% of the participants. The same paper that
anywhere as discussed in the article by Angela was presented in Singapore also highlighted that
Murphy and her co-authors.17 The results of this e-teaching methodology limits student-teacher
study were slightly different from ours as mobile interaction.27 This finding was in congruence with
was the second choice for e-learning after laptop, our study where 84% of the students rated that
whereas, in our case laptop’s preference came at e-teaching has limited student-teacher interaction.
number two after mobile.
Limitations of the study: One of the limitation
Post Covid-19 outbreak, students in Pakistan were
of the study is that sample population has been
required to move to online learning, however, they
drawn from a single, private medical and dental
have found it less appealing due to its limitations
college. Therefore, results of the study cannot be
with respect to practical aspects of learning in the
generalized.
lab/clinical environment. This is consistent with
the students’ behavior in many other countries like CONCLUSION
China, Malaysia, Singapore etc.18-20
When other literature was searched regarding It is concluded that in Pakistan, despite gaining
e-learning under normal circumstances, before immense popularity today, digital technology has
Covid-19, we came across mixed outcomes. Some still not been embraced by the Medical and Dental
suggested positive and others negative inclination students for use in teaching. Students are still more
towards e-learning. inclined towards face to face teaching rather than
Singh A, Min AK did a study on the efficacy e-teaching. Administration and faculty members
of conducting digital lectures on gross anatomy. should take necessary measures for improving
The study investigated student’s satisfaction e-teaching quality to help with better learning of
level towards e-learning and it was found that students during lock down.
majority of the students accepted digital learning.21 Recommendation: The recommendation of the
Raymond Selorm also revealed in his paper that in
study is to further explore factors influencing
comparison to face to face learning students were
students perceptions towards e-learning. It is
satisfied with e-learning.22 However, there also
also recommended to explore the perceptions
exists literature that reports students preferring
of Faculties regarding their experience towards
face to face teaching over online teaching23,24 like in
e-teaching during covid-19 lockdown.
our study wherein students preference was 85%.
Our study results also highlighted that students Grant Support & Financial Disclosures: None.
are not ready to adopt e-learning which is different
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