online medical teaching during covid-19 lockdown: perceptions by the south-indian faculty

Background: the nationwide lockdown following the covid-19 pandemic tremendously impacted the medical teaching-learning process. this study aimed to assess medical teachers’ perceptions about various aspects of online teaching-learning during the lockdown. methods: a survey questionnaire was developed using google forms and emailed to medical teachers in india. responses were analyzed and their significance was assessed using a chi-square test with an alpha of 0.05. results: out of 294 eligible responses, 70% belonged to deemed universities. 42.86% of teachers were preclinical, 23.81% paraclinical and 33.33% belonged to clinical subjects. overall, 93.88% of faculty felt online teaching is time-consuming and 92.52% felt face-to-face classes are better. almost 52% of faculties were reluctant to continue online classes after the lockdown. approximately 53% of teachers believed that the maximum number of students would have utilized this facility, but still, a significant number of teachers were uncertain whether students would have benefited this activity. a significantly greater number of preclinical and paraclinical teachers conducted both theory and practical examinations as well as viva examinations, whereas clinical teachers primarily conducted theory examinations. only 21.77% of teachers were satisfied with the conduct of examinations. conclusion: medical teachers have adapted themselves to teaching online during the covid-19 pandemic. google classroom was the most preferred platform and live synchronous classes were the most preferred choice for delivering the classes. most of the faculty perceived that online teaching was time-consuming. they were skeptical about the active involvement of students in this process. moreover, they felt that the reliability of online assessments needed improving.