BACKGROUND
To meet the changing needs of students, teaching methods have evolved over time. Online and technology-augmented teaching is becoming more common in the digital age to increase student engagement. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this shift towards online education, necessitating research into its effects on medical students' academic performance and the modification of medical curricula to meet the needs of future generations.
OBJECTIVE
Based on summative scores, we aimed to compare the academic performance of undergraduate students in online modules compared to traditional face-to-face education and to assess the perceptions of medical students and faculty regarding online education.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was carried out at Aga Khan University's Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. Summative exam scores were reviewed before and after the implementation of online education for year II medical students. Medical students and faculty members were also surveyed to understand their perspectives on the challenges and success factors of online education and a SWOC analysis was done.
RESULTS
The mean (SD) scores were 76.93 (7.53) and 75.13 (7.15) before and after the implementation of online education respectively. Online education was welcomed by 66.15% of the student population, whereas face-to-face lectures were favored by 61.54% of the faculty. However, conventional face-to-face Problem-Based Learning (PBL) was favored by both students (55.38%) and faculty (53.58%) over online PBLs. In the future, 52.3% and 76.9% of students and faculty, respectively, supported the notion of blended learning.
CONCLUSIONS
Students in this study were satisfied with online education, although faculty preferred conventional lectures; nonetheless, no difference in cognitive results was seen.