Unparalleled Experiences of Online Medical Education during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19 or Sars-C0v2) pandemic in Malaysia have adversely affected the country in many aspects especially the economy and education sectors. Schools and universities alike are facing challenges in providing quality education to the students  especially during the conditional movement control order (CMCO) periods, where many educational institutions have to close for the safety of students and personnel. Many strategies have been recommended to improve the quality of online teaching to enhance student engagement  in the teaching learning processes. MOOC or Massive Open Online Courses are one of the alternative teaching strategies to advocate the students to access education remotely. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be attended by hundreds of students in their own pace and time, which enable them to study from anywhere, at any time virtually. Thus, MOOCs have risen as an alternative option in addition to other  online educational platforms. It is time to take advantage of the uncertain period of COVID-19 into an opportunity to develop the MOOCs as an educational tool for our students. The benefits of MOOCs are self-paced, self-directed, interactive and accessible by unlimited users.