Knowledge, attitude, and perception of dental students regarding online learning program during COVID-19 pandemic – A cross-sectional study

The COVID-19 pandemic compelled most of the countries to impose a lockdown bringing the whole world to a standstill and everyone had to quickly adapt to different ways of working, learning, communicating, and adjusting at every step of life. In response, online education was implemented in India because of the unprecedented nationwide closure of all academic institutions. Initially, a complete shift to online learning was a difficult process for both students and teachers but eventually they got familiarized as it was being used partly over the past few years in dental and higher educational institutes all over the country. The objectives of the study are as follows: (1) To evaluate the efficacy of e-learning, (2) To assess knowledge, attitude, and perception of dental students regarding the online learning program during COVID-19 pandemic. A self-administered questionnaire was formulated and validated by the subject experts and IEC permission was obtained. Online feedback was collected from UG and PG students of Dental colleges in Central India using Google forms. Total questionnaire received was 600 in which 520 responses were complete. Out of which 453 (87.2%) were Bachelor of Dental Surgery and 67 were (12.8%) Master of Dental Surgery students. Around 500 students had a considerable knowledge of computers with 411 (79.1%) of students claiming to have an appropriate internet access. Almost 62.4% of the students agreed that technology has helped them in understanding concepts and improved their ability to retain information. Students gave varied responses regarding their perception of online learning but agree that this is the only way to continue with their dental education in these unprecedented times of the pandemic. The use of online lectures, webinars, and continuing dental education has proved to be informative for dental students and has played a substantial role in completion of the curriculum in these pandemic times. Therefore, a mixed model online and offline education can be developed for effective learning.