Abstract
Introduction/Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic's significant effects could alter education in the future. There was an unexpected but necessary transition to online education. This study aimed to examine faculty members' perspectives regarding e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their level of preparedness for e-learning, considering the epidemic's complete lockdown.
Methods: The study utilized a survey research (cross-sectional) design. The sample size was calculated to be a minimum of 106 faculty members. A validated electronic questionnaire was communicated to faculty members of four colleges at KSAU-HS, Jeddah. Its primary components addressed e-learning preparation, e-learning experience before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and demographic data.
Results: A total of 112 faculty members, with a response rate of 25%, completed the survey. Females made up 50.9% of the sample, and about 30% were between 36-40 years of age with different academic rankings and teaching experiences. Faculty members revealed that more than half of them were novices with no prior experience in e-learning before the epidemic. Nonetheless, faculty members' perspectives of e-learning were favorable, and they significantly improved after COVID-19 (91.9%) compared to before COVID-19 (45.9%). Most participants were enthusiastic (82.3%) about and confident in using e-learning in teaching and learning. Yet, e-learning was only partially used as a substitute for hands-on skill training and assessment. Regarding the impact of the transition to online education during the pandemic, 87.5% of the participants in the survey expressed increased confidence in the efficacy of online learning and teaching. Additionally, the teaching/learning preference of the participants showed that (61.6%) preferred combining online with traditional face-to-face instruction, (35.7%) preferred traditional face-to-face instruction, and only 3 (2.7%) preferred online instruction alone.
Conclusion: This study delivers informative viewpoints on the importance of e-learning and the teaching staff's willingness and competence with it. It calls for improving our institution's e-learning readiness and participation by addressing several individual and infrastructure issues. This is an excellent chance to remove obstacles in e-learning and teaching in medical and healthcare colleges.