Perceptions of medical students and teachers to online medical education: online surveys in Eastern China

Abstract Background: Due to the quarantine measures during the outbreak of COVID-19, medical schools in China had to shift to online education overnight. Researchers wanted to find out the underlying problems and issues worth exploring of online medical education in China so as to enlighten future improvement.Methods: Researchers distributed structured and self-administered surveys on “Wechat”and “Wenjuanxing”. 3 online surveys were given out to the medical students on Feb. 17, Feb. 24 and Mar. 20 and 1 online survey was distributed to the medical teachers on Mar. 20 in Eastern China. Results: 76.42% of the students were satisfied with online medical education and it hardly changed after a month. At first, the biggest challenge of learning online was the lagging platform. But as time passed by, it became the learning motivation. Most students thought it suitable to teach theoretical content online and inappropriate to teach practical classes online. The opinions of PBL, CBL and TBL online were divided. Only 36.27% courses had quiz. 12.40% courses were live-stream and 51.91% course teachers answered questions online. About four fifths parents would remind their children to study online. 69.27% of teachers chose to change or use more learning platforms online.80.61% of parents would remind their children to study online.Most student thought it necessary to re-teach after online education while most teachers did not think so.Conclusion: Generally speaking, the infrastructure in eastern China can meet the requirement of online medical education. Students were not sure whether online PBL, CBL and TBL education could fulfill the goal of the course. Lack of learning motivation was the biggest problem of learning online if the lagging platform issue was fixed. Teachers in China were not skilled enough to teach online. Online medical education efficacy evaluation of teachers and students was entirely different.