Fatemeh Ameri; Meisam Dastani; Abazar Gholami; Maedeh Heidary
Abstract
Background: COVID-19 affected education systems around the world. Virtual education was chosen as a solution not to stop education in schools and universities. While the resolution was adopted to prevent education in the countries, it presented new challenges and complications for university teachers.Objectives: ...
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Background: COVID-19 affected education systems around the world. Virtual education was chosen as a solution not to stop education in schools and universities. While the resolution was adopted to prevent education in the countries, it presented new challenges and complications for university teachers.Objectives: This systematic review examines teachers' challenges during COVID-19 in virtual education.Methods: The present study is a systematic review based on the PRISMA guideline. To conduct this study, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases were searched from 1 December 2019 to 11 November 2021. The inclusion criteria for this study were original research articles published in English that examined the challenges faced by professors in virtual education during COVID-19.Results: Finally, 17 articles were included from the 2219 articles found in the initial search stage, which examined the challenges faced by Professors in virtual education. The results indicated that the most critical challenges facing Professors during the COVID-19 pandemic were as follows, in order of highest to lowest: 1) Limitations on Internet access and appropriate communication infrastructures, 2) lack of access to computer equipment and hardware, 3) low levels of familiarity and necessary training of teachers and students in working with virtual education systems.Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, teachers have faced many challenges due to the existing circumstances and the rapid shift from face-to-face to virtual education. Relevant organizations and institutions should train teachers and students to apply virtual education tools properly.
Milad Ahmadi Gohari; Abedin Iranpour; Salahodin Rakhshani Rad; Moghaddameh Mirzaee; Ali Akbar Haghdoost
Abstract
Background: Online education has become more vastly recognized as a powerful educational tool after the Covid-19 pandemic. It provides educational opportunities that were not previously possible because of time or place restrictions.Objectives: This study investigated the factors influencing students' ...
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Background: Online education has become more vastly recognized as a powerful educational tool after the Covid-19 pandemic. It provides educational opportunities that were not previously possible because of time or place restrictions.Objectives: This study investigated the factors influencing students' acceptance of online learning systems during the Covid-19 pandemic.Methods: The study sample comprised 435 students from Kerman University of Medical Sciences. We used the external technology acceptance model (TAM) to determine the acceptance of online education systems by undergraduate students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to check the model hypotheses. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.Results: In this study, 65% of the participants were men. The mean score for the items in the questionnaire was 53.1±19.3. The constructs of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness had a significant effect on students' attitudes, and students' attitudes and perceived usefulness strongly influenced their behavior in using the online education system.Conclusion: The results of this study show that the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the online education system indirectly affect students' behavior in using online education. Thus, educational policymakers at universities can emphasize the ease of learning and especially the easy use of mobile phones when choosing an online education system. In addition, the creation and expansion of the necessary infrastructure can facilitate student use of online education.
Arghavan Etebarian; Leila Sadati; Somayeh Khoramian Tusi; Kamran Farjad
Abstract
Background: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impossibility of face-to-face learning, universities sought alternative methods to continue education and adapt to the upcoming conditions. Although technology development and virtual education methods created many opportunities in dental education, ...
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Background: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impossibility of face-to-face learning, universities sought alternative methods to continue education and adapt to the upcoming conditions. Although technology development and virtual education methods created many opportunities in dental education, these modern solutions were not free of problems.Objectives: The current study explored the challenges, opportunities, and future directions of dental education from the experience of dental students, faculty members, and the dean of Alborz Dental School during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: The current qualitative study was conducted in 2021 using the content analysis method and in-depth semi-structured interviews with faculty members and students of Alborz Dental School. Purposive sampling was implemented to collect data with maximum variability in the faculty and student groups. In addition, 19 semi-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim immediately after each interview. The results were analyzed using MAXQDA version 10 software through the content analysis method.Results: The results of data analysis in the evaluation of challenges and opportunities of dental education from the experience of dental students, faculty members, and the dean of Alborz Dental School during the COVID-19 pandemic detected three emerging categories: opportunities, challenges, and future direction with subcategories of e-learning, clinical training, infrastructures, and personal life.Conclusion: Despite creating new learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members and dental students faced many challenges. Therefore, identifying these challenges, taking advantage of opportunities, and using faculty members' and students' experiences and suggestions can improve the learning experience and quality of education during the post-pandemic era.
Ensiyeh Mirzaei; Mehrangiz Alinejad; Badrsadat Daneshmand
Abstract
Background: Given that interaction is a vital element in virtual learning, using the professors’ experiences and perceptions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak can provide useful information about the quality of educational interactions in virtual learning courses in order ...
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Background: Given that interaction is a vital element in virtual learning, using the professors’ experiences and perceptions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak can provide useful information about the quality of educational interactions in virtual learning courses in order to improve virtual learning.Objectives: This study aims to explain the perceptions of faculty members of Kerman universities regarding virtual learning based on educational interactions during the COVID-19 outbreak.Methods: This study was conducted with a qualitative content analysis approach in the academic year of 2021 in Kerman University of Medical Sciences and Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. The data collection method was semi-structured interviews with 13 professors of these universities who were included in the study using purposive sampling. Data analysis was performed using the qualitative content analysis method according to the steps introduced by Graneheim and Lundman.Results: The results of this study were presented in the form of 4 main themes: 1) Teacher-learner interactions, including the tools used, how they interact, and their barriers; 2) Learner-learner interaction, learner-content interaction, and teacher-content interaction, including the professors’ actions to create and increase them; 3) Teacher-teacher interactions, including professors’ instructional and research interactions and their barriers; 4) Content-content interaction, which the findings indicated that professors did not pay much attention to this type of interaction.Conclusion: Virtual learning is not limited to the COVID-19 outbreak period but can be used as a supplement to face-to-face learning, even when the universities reopen; therefore, valuable experiences of professors of virtual learning can be used to strengthen various types of educational interactions and develop virtual learning in the studied universities and other universities.
Leili Mosalanejad; Mehdi Dastpak; Fatemeh Kheshti
Abstract
Background: COVID-19 crisis has created special educational conditions. This challenge has brought about changes in students’ academic lifestyles.Objectives: We aimed to conduct a qualitative study on the students’ academic lifestyle and quality during the COVID-19 crisis.Methods: This is ...
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Background: COVID-19 crisis has created special educational conditions. This challenge has brought about changes in students’ academic lifestyles.Objectives: We aimed to conduct a qualitative study on the students’ academic lifestyle and quality during the COVID-19 crisis.Methods: This is a qualitative method with a phenomenological analysis. The research was conducted within the framework of logic sampling on 50 students with a phenomenological approach to Medical, Health, and Laboratory Sciences students. It was purposeful. Students were asked to describe the style and quality of their academic life in the form of expression of experience during their COVID-19 crisis and quarantine, and then the analysis of the students’ written work was performed using Colaizzi’s seven-step process. Four-dimension criteria were also considered to assess rigor of qualitative research (credibility, dependability, conformability, and transferability).Results: Of 64 codes obtained in the research, five themes and 11 sub-themes emerged. Themes included items such as 1) unknown stress and anxiety, vague future and professional problem, 2) cognitive burden (information literacy, bulk contents, need for self-paced, and need for mastery), 3) interests (following interest and compensation process), 4) skills (self-regulation, self-direction, and time management), and 5) security (available content, exercise, and practice).Conclusion: According to the results, it can be stated that changing the academic lifestyle can provide improved personal skills and information literacy, but changing the academic lifestyle in a negative direction with cognitive burden and fear of the unknown has created many problems in the process of this lifestyle.
Masoud Mayel; Nazanin Shahabinezhad; Atefeh Payandeh; Ahmad Alinaghi Langari
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused international health concerns. University students, especially medical students, considered to experience higher anxiety levels. This high level of anxiety may lead to many challenges and unfavorable consequences.Objectives: This study aimed to assess psychological ...
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused international health concerns. University students, especially medical students, considered to experience higher anxiety levels. This high level of anxiety may lead to many challenges and unfavorable consequences.Objectives: This study aimed to assess psychological well-being and the prevalence of anxiety among medical students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted on Kerman University of Medical Sciences medical students from April to June 2021. The participants were asked to complete Corona Disease Anxiety Scale (CDAS), Goldberg and Hiller’s General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), and a demographic information questionnaire. Data were analyzed by statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for windows, version 24, at the significance level of p <0.05 and highly significant level of p<0.001. The multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and multiple regression were employed as Statistical tests.Results: A total of 201 medical students participated, 60.3% being female. The adjusted mean score of COVID-19 anxiety was 11.05 (1.91), and the mean scores obtained for GHQ28 subscales, including somatic, anxiety, social dysfunction, and depression symptoms, were 5.82 (4.41), 7.75 (3.18), 4.49 (5.14), and 10.12 (7.25), respectively. Different factors, including gender and educational level, significantly affected the components of these two questionnaires. Based on linear regression model, anxiety/Insomnia and depression subscales of GHQ28 questionnaire increased COVID-19 anxiety levels.Conclusion: The COVID-19-related anxiety level of medical students was mild. Female students and students with higher educational levels experienced more anxiety attributable to COVID-19. The general anxiety and depression levels were mild. These data highlight that in critical circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, university authorities need to consider medical students’ psychological well-being.
Soudabeh Ghazizadeh Ehsaei; Mehry Haddad Narafshan; Majid Zeinali Nejad
Abstract
Background: Individuals engaged in education and health currently during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic find it urgent to avail themselves of high-speed communication and information technology.Objectives: This survey was conducted to investigate the attitudes of environmental and occupational ...
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Background: Individuals engaged in education and health currently during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic find it urgent to avail themselves of high-speed communication and information technology.Objectives: This survey was conducted to investigate the attitudes of environmental and occupational health students toward Social Media (SM) use in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which its population consisted of 375 environmental and occupational health students studying at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran, in the academic year 2020-2021. The present study followed a quantitative design using the Social Media Attitude Scale designed by Otrar and Argin. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 26) and paired t-test.Results: The participants were within the age range of 18-46 years, and 64.8% of them were female. Instagram was the most popular SM (frequency of use: 40%). Twitter (27%), Facebook (20%), and LinkedIn (13%) were placed in the next ranks. The need for sharing (61.4±14.93) was the most preferred dimension of SM. Social competence (54.23±5.17), social isolation (51.33±4.43), and relationship with teachers (40.63±9.7) were placed in the next ranks. Moreover, there was no significant difference between environmental and occupational health students’ attitudes toward SM (P>0.01).Conclusion: Medical universities can use SM for educational purposes by designing a forum for study or helping students with health skills. However, researchers should be aware of health science students’ attitudes toward SM before developing such programs.
Prakash G Gondode; Ankita Mahavir Garg; Diksha Manoj Gaur; Muralidharan Vittobaraju
Kallol Debnath
Sara Shafian; Peigham Heidarpoor; Kambiz Bahaadinbeigy; Shahram Yazdani
Abstract
Background: The outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) caused a pandemic in most countries, and how to face the pandemic is a major issue that needs to be addressed worldwide. Objectives: The current study aimed at determining the competitive advantage and scientific strength of medical sciences ...
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Background: The outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) caused a pandemic in most countries, and how to face the pandemic is a major issue that needs to be addressed worldwide. Objectives: The current study aimed at determining the competitive advantage and scientific strength of medical sciences universities to face this pandemic.Methods: A mixed-methods was employed to conduct the current study from May to April 2020 in three steps: a) identifying the academic departments with the most exposure to this pandemic; b) designing the protocol to calculate the scientific strength and competitive advantage, c) allocating the mission to academic departments.Result: The scientific strength and competitive advantage were calculated for clinical and non-clinical departments in all medical sciences universities. The obtained results indicated that some universities, for instance, Tehran, Shahid Beheshti, Iran, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Shiraz, Kerman, and Mashhad, had the most competitive advantage that would increase their responsibility to face this pandemic.Conclusion: Policy-makers that clearly identify the mission and objectives of their institutions and define the relevant tasks may have better performance based on the capacities and abilities of the medical sciences universities.
Mehrdad Haghighi; Shahin Salehi; Mehrdad Ghasemian; Mahmoud Nouraei
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes in the educational structure of hospitals, so much so that the educational systems tend to use online education. In this regard, the Deputy of Education of Imam Hossein Hospital designed an application to expand this form of education in the hospital.Objectives:The ...
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes in the educational structure of hospitals, so much so that the educational systems tend to use online education. In this regard, the Deputy of Education of Imam Hossein Hospital designed an application to expand this form of education in the hospital.Objectives:The purpose of this study was to review various software used in online education in Imam Hossein Hospital, to obtain the strengths and weaknesses.Methods: The present investigation was a scholarly approach study performed in Imam Hossein Hospital in Tehran in several stages during the COVID- 19 outbreak (beginning of March 2020). First, the necessary infrastructure was examined through meetings held in the educational deputy of the hospital. Then, a system was created by the deputy by which teachers could upload educational files in different formats. Finally, the files uploaded by the faculty members were evaluated by the observers.Results: In this study, professors uploaded 234 files in various formats to the hospital website. PowerPoint was the most frequent format in these files, of which 105 (44.8%) were uploaded. 42 (17.9%) files were sent as images. 27 (11.5%) were multimedia files in different formats. And 17 files (7.2%) were about the evaluation of the residents, which was conducted via Google form. Other files in total 43 (18.3%) included other formats. The average score of the educational files uploaded by the faculty members was 17.79 ± 3.26.Conclusion: Since medical education is mostly based on students' clinical practice, the lack of an exclusive platform in this area is quite noticeable. The present study showed that professors at first do not necessarily choose the best platform for providing online education, but the most familiar software available. This trend, however, may change with experience. Therefore, it is better to suggest the best platform for professors from the very beginning of online education
Zahra Ayazi; Soleiman Ahmady
Abstract
Background: In the current COVID-19 crisis, the necessity for respecting social distancing and making the new decisions by officials, and the closure of universities moved the classrooms to entire online home learning. Strategic planning allows the university to adapt its activities to meet the changing ...
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Background: In the current COVID-19 crisis, the necessity for respecting social distancing and making the new decisions by officials, and the closure of universities moved the classrooms to entire online home learning. Strategic planning allows the university to adapt its activities to meet the changing needs of the environment.Objectives: The present study aimed at explaining the viewpoints of students and evaluating the phenomenon of virtual education of students during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Virtual School of Medical Education and Management of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2020. Internal and external factors affecting this system were identified and analyzed. Methods: The present descriptive-survey described the conditions and characteristics of virtual education and surveyed students' viewpoints on factors affecting this system of education. Using the TOWS (Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Strength) matrix,, the internal and external factor evaluation matrices were plotted, and the final score of each factor was achieved by determining its coefficient and rank, and proper strategy was formulated after analysis.Results: The TOWS matrix analyses showed the overtake of threats by opportunities and the exceed of strengths over weaknesses in factors affecting the virtual education, indicating the strategic status of the virtual education of the virtual school in the ST (strengths-threats) cell.Conclusion: Coronavirus outbreak is not the end of a pandemic, and there is still the risk of the emergence of other diseases and crises. The valuable experience learned from the Coronavirus era can be used in the development of virtual education in the studied and other faculties. Fortifying strengths, benefitting from opportunities, reducing weaknesses, and fixing threats can provide a suitable strategic basis for planning virtual education in Iran.
Mahmood Reza Dehghani; Somaye Noori Hekmat; Amin Beigzadeh
Maryam Alizadeh; Mahboobeh Khabaz Mafinejad
