Face to face versus virtual assessment - A survey on Indian medical students' perception during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

Background: Assessment has a very important role in curricular development by motivating students and target setting, providing appropriate feedback and quality assurance. During COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown, most of the medical schools throughout the world including India had to undergo a paradigm shift from face to face to online mode in medical education and assessment. This study was planned to assess and analyze the perception and opinion of 1st-year medical students from all over the country regarding the online assessment (OA) process that emerged during the COVID 19 pandemic. We also tried to find out the preferred resources that the students wanted to access via online mode and any major hindrance they faced. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional, Internet based, online survey conducted on 1st year medical students from all over India. Result: Students preferred the traditional (face to face) examinations over the OA in terms of usefulness, motivation, answering long answer questions, adequacy of allotted time, and ease of performance. However, they favored OA in terms of examination anxiety, examiner bias, and answering the objective type of questions. The lack of good Internet connectivity was considered a major hindrance. Conclusion: This information might be helpful for respective authorities to establish an effective online platform which could deliver an authentic and valid OA in future during any crisis.