Editorial
Habibeh Ahmadipour
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has startled all of us, caused rapid and major changes in the higher education system of Iran, especially in the field of medical education. Although since 2001 the education system is trying to use virtual /distance education (1), until the start of the pandemic, e-learning ...
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The COVID-19 pandemic, which has startled all of us, caused rapid and major changes in the higher education system of Iran, especially in the field of medical education. Although since 2001 the education system is trying to use virtual /distance education (1), until the start of the pandemic, e-learning had a low share in the educational programs of most medical universities and was considered as a less important secondary educational method. Since controlling the pandemic requires avoiding face-to-face training, e-learning is the most important way to provide educational content and holding courses in almost all medical universities of Iran.According to the literature, e-learning is faced with five challenges related to the university, professors, students, e-learning systems, and e-classroom environment (2). However, there are studies which mentioned to four categories of challenges, including technical and technological (weakness in telecommunications infrastructure), teachers and learners (unfamiliarity with the structure and technology used for e-learning), ethical challenges (weakness of existing technologies for fraud detection), and problems related to psychological issues (technology-related anxieties such as power and internet outages and system crashes) (3). Since the onset of the pandemic in Iran was simultaneous with the start of the new educational semester, there was no opportunity for proper planning. Therefore, most of the medical universities focused their planning, policies, and activities on finding proper educational platforms (while having eyes on costs, convenience, etc.) to provide educational content (either online or offline), creating or modifying the infrastructure of distance/electronic/online education, and providing intensive training courses for familiarizing university teachers with these methods of education and Learning Management Systems (LMS). It seems that less attention is paid to students, who are the other side of e-learning systems. We, unfortunately, ignored that a sudden shift from an almost complete face-to-face education to complete e-learning creates challenges for students. It was assumed that, if correct educational content (according to educational objectives) be provided correctly by the professors and through a proper communication path, students would receive the content correctly.Although nowadays students are Millennials or from the Z generation and we name them as digital citizens or the Internet generation, however, their ability to use e-learning systems is different. For face-to-face instruction, it was emphasized that students' differences should be taken into account to increase the effectiveness of the education, butthis has been overlooked in our current e-learning systems, which may be due to the rapid and forced transformation from face-to-face to the electronic methods.Given that likely, the coronavirus will be with us for at least the next two years, so students' challenges in e-learning and related factors should be addressed. If the current situation is properly understood, it would be possible to take timely and effective steps to provide evidence-based interventions for effective electronic training and evaluations.
Policy Analysis
Ali Khaki Sedigh; Mohamad Reza Ahanchian
Abstract
Background: After the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictions assigned by the National Committee on Combating Coronavirus (NCCC), the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (MSRT) set up committees to trace and analyze the outcomes of the pandemic.Objectives: This paper aimed to explain ...
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Background: After the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictions assigned by the National Committee on Combating Coronavirus (NCCC), the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (MSRT) set up committees to trace and analyze the outcomes of the pandemic.Objectives: This paper aimed to explain the policies, programs, and activities executed by MSRT and analyze the points of strength and weakness.Methods: In this report, the MSRT experience during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Iran higher education (HE) system is briefly reported by referring to pieces of evidence documented by MSRT and analyzing strengths and, predicting the outcomes toward the future. The evidence was analyzed descriptively.Results: The policies, plans, and actions were based on three key policies including participation, adaptation, and tolerance.Conclusion: Iranian HE system has changed in many aspects during the recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MSRT instantly reorganized its activities to coordinate its decisions with NCCC.
Original Article
Reza Malek Pourafshar; Reza Shojaeipour; Payam Khazaeli; Azam Bazrafshan; Amin Beigzadeh; Mahmood Reza Dehghani
Abstract
Background: Currently, many medical universities in Iran use e-learning programs to educate and evaluate students. This teaching and assessment method is highly significant during the coronavirus epidemic.Objectives: The present study was conducted to compare the analytic indices of in-person vs. online ...
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Background: Currently, many medical universities in Iran use e-learning programs to educate and evaluate students. This teaching and assessment method is highly significant during the coronavirus epidemic.Objectives: The present study was conducted to compare the analytic indices of in-person vs. online exams at the Kerman University of Medical Sciences, (KUMS), Iran.Method: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in 2020. The study samples included all exams given at the KMUS and midterm exam scores obtained from in-person and online courses in the first and second semesters in the academic year 2019-2020. The exams were selected based on courses, and the same courses were offered both in-person and online; thus, only one group was studied. Course exam indicators, including difficulty and discriminative index, were examined. Data analyzed using SPSS software version 22.Results: The mean of the difficulty index related to in-person and online exams were (0.62 ± 0.1) and (0.68 ± 0.1), respectively. (P=0.01). The mean of the discriminative index related to in-person (0.30± 0.07) and online (0.33± 0.08) exams had no statistically significant difference (P˃0.05). The frequency of easy questions in online exams was significantly higher, (55% vs. 43%) (p = 0.008). The frequency of questions with an appropriate discriminative index was significantly higher for in-person exams compared to online exams (58% vs. 54%) (p = 0.01).Conclusion: The difficulty index was acceptable and appropriate for both in-person and online exams. Both exams had appropriate quality according to the discriminative index .Therefore, it seems that e-learning programs and assessments can be a good alternative to in-person teaching in emergencies.
Original Article
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.
Original Article
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
Original Article
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.
Editor’s Note
Faisal Muhammad
Editor’s Note
Mahmood Reza Dehghani; Somaye Noori Hekmat; Amin Beigzadeh
Editor’s Note
Maryam Alizadeh; Mahboobeh Khabaz Mafinejad
Letter to editor
Meisam Dastani
Abstract
Covid19 is a viral disease (Coronavirus 2019) that was created in December 2019 in Wuhan (China) and quickly spread worldwide (1). It is a serious challenge for public sanitation and the health of societies. Like other pandemic diseases, people want to know what can be done to prevent and treat the disease. ...
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Covid19 is a viral disease (Coronavirus 2019) that was created in December 2019 in Wuhan (China) and quickly spread worldwide (1). It is a serious challenge for public sanitation and the health of societies. Like other pandemic diseases, people want to know what can be done to prevent and treat the disease. Considering that no specific control or method is developed to prevent and treat this disease yet, early diagnosis and prompt treatment are of crucial importance because not only does the patient become involved in the disease, but it also significantly increases the risk of transmitting the infection and its subsequent expansion (2). So self-care and self-control are vital to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The people of communities that are infected with COVID-19 should be trained about how to protect themselves against risks and harms of this new unknown virus. Considering that the universities of medical sciences are responsible for promoting the health of the people in their catchment area, one of the main tasks of these organizations during this crisis is to train the people about how to prevent and treat this new virus. In this way, in addition to conducting research and publishing the results as scientific articles, medical universities have developed content in various multimedia formats to inform people as well as to train them about how to prevent the spread of the disease. Developed contents on the internet, such as websites of medical universities and social networks, are available to the community. Of course, since appropriate information is not available on the internet, most of the developed contents are published on weblogs and channels of social media and instant messaging such as Soroush, Eta, and Telegram. Because these contents cannot be searched through search engines such as Google (3), they are not widely available to the public and are only accessible in a limited number of networks and channels. Even these contents may be removed from social media or webpages before being publicly available. Therefore, developing and disseminating information and knowledge is one of the main tasks of universities (4), and the storage and preservation of this knowledge are of great importance for universities and scientific centers. Besides, public access tothese contents and their storage are so important so that medical universities in each province or city can collect and keep these contents by creating Internet websites or institution repository (5). Therefore, universities can make available content on the web by managing this information and the resources generated in the university.
