E-learning Experience Among Postgraduate, Medical Students and Teaching Staff in Departments Imparting Knowledge on Childhood Conditions at the School of Medicine, University of Nairobi Multimethod Study

Abstract

Background: The disruption of learning due to lockdown measure brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic forced educational institutions to accelerate the use and adoption of eLearning technology tool as a medium of learning including at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Nairobi. Though this mode of teaching has been going on for over two years at the University of Nairobi Medical school, evaluation of experiences and challenges faced by learners has not been done. Even though the incidence of Covid 19 has gone down, eLearning has continued. The aim of this study was to assess the experiences and challenges in using this mode of learning in order to optimize delivery of eLearning. Objectives: The primary objective was to describe the experience of undergraduate and postgraduate students, and teaching staff towards eLearning during COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Nairobi. The secondary objectives were: (1) To identify student and staff-related factors associated with positive experience of eLearning and (2) to describe barriers to eLearning among medical students and teaching staff at the UoN Faculty of Health Sciences. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted that enrolled undergraduate and postgraduate students and teaching staff from the departments of Paediatrics and Child health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and paediatric surgery in the School of Medicine at the UoN. The study examined data on experiences through online questionnaires of eLearning used by students and faculty members. Four focused group discussion were conducted among the students and six in-depth interviews among the teaching staff to identify challenges to eLearning. Result: One hundred and fifty-two participants were enrolled into the study. Students enrolled were 139, and teaching staff were 13. Ninety-five students reported positive experience of whom 75(70.1%) were postgraduate students and 20(62.5%) undergraduate students. Among the teaching staff, the overall positive experience was 59.7%, this was based on assessing the benefits of eLearning, online assessment of medical content and technical skills gained by the teaching staff. Postgraduate students were more likely to have positive experience (aOR 1.4 95% CI 0.6-3.2) compared to undergraduate students, males were more likely to have positive experience (aOR 1.1 95%CI 0.5-2.4) compared to females and students from obstetrics and gynaecology (aOR 0.4 95%CI 0.1-1.0) and paediatric surgery (aOR 0.9 95%CI 0.3-2.7) were less likely to have positive experience compared to those from paediatric and child health department. Accessibility and student engagement were among the challenges found in the study. Conclusion: Majority of the students reported positive experience and the factors associated with positive experience in the study were male gender, postgraduate student and students in paediatrics and child health department. Accessibility and limited student engagement were the main challenges reported.