Sakshi Agarwal1, Jaya Shankar Kaushik2. 1. Department of Neurology, Pt B D Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak,, Haryana, India. 2. Department of Pediatrics, Pt B D Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak,, Haryana 124001, India. jayashankarkaushik@gmail.com.
To the Editor: Coronavirus pandemic has not only impacted human life but also impacted medical education and residency training all over [1]. With principles of social distancing, all face to face classes were suspended due to the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic [2]. Considering its implications on our students, an online teaching session was conducted every day for 12 d. We used a free version of Zoom which allows maximum of 100 participants and for time period of 40 min. Students’ perceptions were collected at the end of this lecture series.Feedback responses were obtained from 77 participants. Of these, 87% (67) were post-graduate students. Participants found the sessions to be relevant to their learning needs and clinical practice [n = 75 (97%)]. Majority of the participants perceived that the sessions were tailored to their level of learning [n = 76 (99%)] and found the sessions to be interesting and enjoyable [n = 72 (95%)]. All of the participants (n = 77) felt that each pediatric sub-specialty should start their classes for postgraduates, and that online classes should be made a part of the medical postgraduate curriculum.In the open comments, participants responded that these online sessions broke monotonous routine, were a good utilization of time and the material was easy to access. They felt motivated to read on those topics and it helped them not to think of COVID and sleep peacefully. Most frequent factors hindering learning were stated as limitation on the number of participants, time limitation of the sessions, and technical faults during the conduct of sessions. These shortcomings were addressed subsequently through buying advanced version of the software that allows more time, and better opportunity to interact with students.COVID pandemic made us realize the importance of online training for our pediatric postgraduate students. Students’ satisfaction levels with online learning were comparable to the previous studies [3]. Apart from gain in knowledge, the present study revealed the impact of online learning on the morale of our students by creating a diversion from the ongoing pandemic situation. We conclude that online teaching is feasible, cheap and must be made a part of the postgraduate training in India beyond the prevailing lockdown.