Awareness of Ethical Issue in Online Teaching for Medical Education, West Bengal, lndia

Currently, the world is responding to a pandemic of contagious respiratory disease caused by a novel corona virus and its emerging new variants of concern, COVID-19 that has impacted all aspects of our lives, including education. Hence, online classes have become a key component in the continuity of medical education, it allows the students to interact with their teacher face-to-face through the internet using online tools and so on, which can be combination of blended learning (attending classes along with virtual class). In online learning, academic dishonesty in institutions is one of the major ethical challenges which is affecting negatively on the character and personality of student. The present study is conducted to assess the perceptions and awareness of ethical issues in online learning by study participants. A self-administered online questionnaire using Google Forms® having combination of closed- and open-ended questions was given to participants. The data collected was analyzed in excel sheets using simple statistical tool. 62 (36%), out of 171 students disagreed that online teaching sessions were more effective and helped them to study better, they considered it is not effective in delivering or promoting effective teaching learning in medical education considering various barriers to it. However, 19 (76%) out of 25 faculty agreed that Online learning in medical education enables students to continue their education similar to the traditional approach. Participants awareness on ethical issues was good when using online learning systems in medical education and the students should be made fully knowledgeable about ethical issues to avoid unethical behavior during their academic period.