Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a paradigm shift in the medical education system from traditional teaching to distant online teaching. This transition dealt with a lot of infrastructural and technical difficulties at both the teacher’s and student’s end.
Aim: This study was conducted to analyse the perceptions of medical students on the role of online teaching in facilitating their education.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students of Srirama Chandra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College, Cuttack, during July and August 2020. The study population comprised medical students from the 2nd, 4th, and 6th semesters. Data collection was done in Google form being circulated by Whatsapp or email to the students enquiring about the perceptions, benefits, and challenges of online classes. Data analysis was done using software IBM SPSS version 21.0. Odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was calculated for association and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Out of 637 students, 411 (64.5%) found online classes useful to satisfy their educational needs, but a large group of 389 (61.1%) students felt online classes do not help in better understanding. Nearly 60% of students belonging to the 4th and 6th semesters and aged more than 21 years were twice more attentive than students in the 2nd semester. Similarly, half of the students reported being attentive in online classes where they found the teacher to be cooperative with an Odds ratio of 5.04 (CI: 2.6–9.4).
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced a new normal where online teaching cannot be avoided. Despite challenges faced during online teaching, 64.5% of students found it useful.
