Debate: E-Learning - educational norm in COVID times
Side: Oppose

DRAWBACK OF E- LEARNING 1. In a study “Perspectives of Indian medical students on e-learning as a tool for medical education in the country: a quantitative study by Neel N. Lawande, Trusha D. Kenkre, Nuala A. Mendes, Lydia M. Dias, Amit S. Dias”, it states that 15.8% of the participant reported that they could concentrate through the whole class, while 60% of the respondents in this study could not concentrate beyond 30 minutes and felt it would be more effective if the duration of the classes was reduced. A study on concentration of medical students by Stuart and Rutherford showed similar results where student concentration rose sharply to reach a maximum in 10-15 minutes, and fell steadily thereafter. The study also stated that the optimum length of a lecture may be 30 minutes instead of 60 minutes. 2. Technical issues and lack of interaction were an important hurdle in the flow of the lecture, causing preference of offline classes with respect to better concentration. Decreasing the length of the lecture or providing breaks between the sessions; making offline videos of the live lecture available to all students and trying to make the sessions more interactive, as mentioned above, are solutions, in order to ensure better concentration of the students. Difficulty in operating the software through which online classes were held was a complaint reported by 22.1% of the students.3. In the absence of proper support and maintenance of even the most current and sophisticated software, the ability of teachers and students to access and use technology is highly compromised. 4. Organising training workshops for students as well as teachers regularly, to improve their technological skills and be at par with updates in software is a solution. Also, usage of a single, safe and effective software by all medical institutions in India, would standardise the training programs which need to be given to students and teachers.5. A common drawback identified by a majority of the participants (79%) was loss of connection during classes due to poor or unstable network availability and disruption in the flow of the lecture. This obstacle can be overcome by recording the lectures and providing them to the students through various social platforms. Another solution to this would be provision of alternate means of attending these lectures, for example through a ‘call in’ means for joining and attending classes in audio only mode. An innovative and effective solution would be development of e-learning software that function smoothly even at low bandwidths.6. A recent survey by Uma V stated that 40% of the concerns about online education were related to unreliable connectivity, 30% cited the cost of data and 10% reported uncertainty in electrical supply.23 Only 28% of the students belonging to rural households had access to the internet at home. Such issues need to be worked on, to extend the reach of e-learning to rural population as well. The medical field calls for students to have a great deal of social soft skills in order to win the trust of patients and ace the art of medicine. 7. The lack of patient exposure and clinical cases creates a great void in medical learning, which seemed to be one major setback for e-learning, causing students to prefer the traditional method of classes. 8. The Negative Attitude of Students and teachers towards new technologies. Teachers had indicated that learning new techniques was challenging for them, especially when facing technical issues. This caused a general feeling of inadequacy. The study conducted in Pakistan by Abbasi et al reports the negative attitude towards e-learning and preferred face-to-face learning because of poor internet access and stability. 9. Challenges range from technical issues related to inadequate technical infrastructure and unreliable internet connectivity for smooth conduct of online teaching and learning. Need to make available accessible and dependable digital infrastructure and technical support at institution level.10. Absence of institutional strategies to facilitate online teaching, recurring financial costs, pedagogical insecurity.11. Insufficient preparedness of faculty in effective use of online teaching tools and LMSs, time constraints, lack of appropriate tools for clinical teaching, and lack of direct contact between teachers and learners. 12. There is need of training opportunities for medical educators in the use of available online teaching–learning modalities and pedagogical competence; and facilities and time for medical educators to structure and develop pedagogically sound online teaching and learning activities by aligning learning objectives, content, activities, and assessment while ensuring optimal virtual contact with learners.13. Conclusion Online teaching, learning, and assessment in medical education are still relatively new; however, it has the potential to become mainstream in the near future. 14. It is no longer a matter of when this will pass. Now, it is about the challenge of adapting to the new normal; that is the virtual world, till we get back to physically being available in our educational institutions again.