Authors : Yasir Israr, Abdul Adil, Qazi Haris Wadan, Muhammad Asif, Noman Jan, Syed Imran GIllani, Hana Sanad
DOI : 10.18231/j.idjsr.2021.030
Volume : 9
Issue : 3
Year : 2021
Page No : 162-166
Introduction: Due to Covid-19 pandemic, dental institutes were forced to shut down and forced to immediately switch to online learning platforms.
Objectives: This study aimed to assess the detriments of online education from the perspective of dental students in developing countries.
Materials and Methods: An online survey was distributed among dental students of India, Pakistan and Egypt through social media platforms, which assessed the developing countries’ barriers to a seamless online learning experience.
Results: Among 498 students, 30% did not have a stable internet connection to run online classes. More than half the population (51%, 257) lacked concentration during their online lectures. Most of the participants (71%, 358) expressed that their teachers required more training on how to deliver lectures adequately through online teaching platforms. All of these answers were statistically significant with a Chi-square test score of 0.001.
Results: Students of clinical years further expressed that they lacked a proper understanding of their clinical subjects at 76% (379).
Conclusions: There were numerous barriers faced by dental students in developing countries for an optimal learning experience, most prominent of which was poor communication between educators and students and a lack of a structured program for clinical sciences.
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Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Dental