Medical Students' Perception Towards E-learning During COVID 19 Pandemic in a high Burden Developing Country

Abstract Background: In High-income countries, many academic institutions are using e-learning during COVID 19 Pandemic. However, in limited resource countries, like Sudan, shifting towards E-learning require many adjustments to be made in order to make sure the e-learning is held in a proper manner, as best as possible. This study was undertaken to assess medical students’ perception towards implementing E-learning during COVID 19 Pandemic and to highlight difficulties of E-learning implementation in a limited-resource setting. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted between 10 to 25 May 2020 among the undergraduate medical students at the Faculty of medicine, University of Gezira, Sudan. A predesigned online-based questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: The total numbers of 358 medical undergraduate students responded to the survey and completely fill the electronic questionnaire. The majority (87.7%) of student agreed that, the closure of university is an essential decision to control spread of the COVID-19 infection. Approximately two-third (64%) of student perceived that E-learning is the best solution during COVID 19 lockdown. Level of student in the university and residence has strong relation to students’ opinion regards start the online education. Internet bandwidth and connectivity limitation, Unfamiliarity with E-learning system, Technical support limitation and time flexibility in case of technical problems during online exams and Lack of face-to-face interaction were the factors considered by medical students to be against the E-learning implementation. Conclusion : Majority of medical students had a positive perception towards E-learning. However, there are many challenges considered as inhibitory factor for utilizing electronic technologies for medical education. We recommend that challenges of E-learning in our setting should be systematically evaluated and that effective strategies should be developed to overcome their inhibitory effects.