Adapting to the New Normal: The Teaching and Learning of Parasitology Course During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The emergence of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has had the Malaysian Authorities enforce strict actions and tactical strategies to control the widespread disease. Education was one of the sectors greatly affected during that period. Hence, this survey was carried out to investigate the challenges in adapting to the new norms of which academicians and students face in teaching and learning Parasitology subjects in Malaysia. Methods: The qualitative explorative questionnaires (online survey) were administered to academicians and students who volunteered to participate in this study from February 2021 till April 2021 via Google form. Results: Based on the results gathered from pools of academicians and students (n=142), many academicians prefer the online teaching method (60%) over the physical, face-to-face teaching method. Surprisingly, 60% of the lecturers and 75.5% students were neutral on the question whether virtual online practical lesson is efficient as a live session for teaching. The current study has found that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown had varying degrees of impact on most participants’ academic achievement. Conclusion: Online teaching offers more freedom to lecturers and students to learn at their own paces and spaces. The recommendations from academicians and students indicated that they welcomed and were comfortable with online learning methods for Parasitology subjects in the future. However, as the laboratory practical, they prefer it to be held via physical (face- to face) sessions.