Online medical teaching during COVID-19 lockdown: perceptions by the South-Indian Faculty

Background: The nationwide lockdown following the COVID-19 pandemic tremendously impacted the medical teaching-learning process. This study aimed to assess medical teachers’ perceptions about various aspects of online teaching-learning during the lockdown. Methods: A survey questionnaire was developed using Google Forms and emailed to medical teachers in India. Responses were analyzed and their significance was assessed using a chi-square test with an alpha of 0.05. Results: Out of 294 eligible responses, 70% belonged to deemed universities. 42.86% of teachers were preclinical, 23.81% paraclinical and 33.33% belonged to clinical subjects. Overall, 93.88% of faculty felt online teaching is time-consuming and 92.52% felt face-to-face classes are better. Almost 52% of faculties were reluctant to continue online classes after the lockdown. Approximately 53% of teachers believed that the maximum number of students would have utilized this facility, but still, a significant number of teachers were uncertain whether students would have benefited this activity. A significantly greater number of preclinical and paraclinical teachers conducted both theory and practical examinations as well as viva examinations, whereas clinical teachers primarily conducted theory examinations. Only 21.77% of teachers were satisfied with the conduct of examinations. Conclusion: Medical teachers have adapted themselves to teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Google Classroom was the most preferred platform and live synchronous classes were the most preferred choice for delivering the classes. Most of the faculty perceived that online teaching was time-consuming. They were skeptical about the active involvement of students in this process. Moreover, they felt that the reliability of online assessments needed improving.