DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2021.v09i12.001

Pages: 382-388

There exists lack of readiness and challenges for the medical faculty to teach online. During COVID-19 pandemic, the need for constant support and training the faculty at different levels for the online teaching platform has been unanimously felt. Thus, identifying challenges of faculty and their needs is useful to achieve positive learning outcomes of online teaching. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted. The questionnaire was sent via E-mail or What’s app to the faculty who were involved in online teaching at our institute as well as other different medical institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Majority agreed that they have adequate knowledge and skills regarding online preparation and delivery of the classes. However, over ninety percent also felt the need to have more creative resources for online classes. More than half did not feel confident to handle technical issues. Student engagement factors were the common hurdles in online teaching and majority felt lack of connectedness with the students during online teaching. The need for further training for online teaching platform was uniformly expressed. Online teaching platforms have been considered useful for learning and it was suggested that online teaching should be continued as adjunct to online teaching in medical education post pandemic. It can be concluded that the medical faculty needs further training to be competent in their role to ensure the online learning environment. Online teaching methods can be incorporated in the medical curriculum to effectively facilitate learning of the students.