India at present is facing the worst pandemic of the novel coronavirus. Till date there are 86,000 plus positive cases with 2695 deaths. Health care workers are in the frontline and working at their full capacity. Since the lockdown announced, academic activities are suspended but learning can’t be stopped especially in medical schools. Therefore, we in our institute in central India have decided to start E-classes for the undergraduate and post graduate students. This is the first time we at institute level have initiated online teaching -learning activities. As it is said if you want to work you will find ways otherwise excuses. Thus, we searched for online platforms, faculty have been familiar to Zoom app, but due to security issues, we zeroed on Microsoft Teams, it’s a student friendly application of Microsoft Office 365 and has many interactive features. The students on a particular team are able to access classes scheduled and therefore they know their classes for that day. The faculty used various means of delivering lecture, power point presentation was most common, followed by videos and white board. Cognitive and psychomotor domains were covered by various means of delivering content. Skill based video demonstration was done for example, neonatal resuscitation protocol was showed on a video and bag and mask ventilation technique was demonstrated live.
As per feedback received, majority of students were satisfied with the teacher’s knowledge of subject and their art of teaching. The mode of teaching is new but almost all the teachers were able to conduct classes comfortably. At this point of time, the number of Covid positive cases in our city is not very high, so undergraduate students are not being utilized for community tracing or clinical work. Faculty of various departments is involved in Covid management, so not every faculty was able to conduct classes. The student’s response to online classes was satisfactory but the problems in network was their main concern. The network connection has to be stable as large data is exchanged during online classes (2). As country wide lockdown is going on students are at their homes so the network quality is a major problem while conducting e-classes. The importance of e -classes is felt in this time of pandemic and their utilization is a boon in these tough times (3). The students were sensitized regarding preparedness in pandemic and infection prevention- control through e- classes. While the pandemic is going on there is pressing need of health care workers and as many countries have put their students in clinical management, we in India should also be prepared. The undergraduate curriculum is to be delivered through various modes, during the restrictions it’s not possible to have clinical postings, thus case-based learning was done in e classes (4). Teachers facilitated the students to build up the case and make differential diagnosis. Case based learning helps in putting forwards different clinical situations that may arise and thus understanding of disease becomes better (5). The pandemic is continuing and the online classes are helping academics to continue along with it (6). Covid 19 cases are rising all over country and we are now under Lockdown 4 Therefore the feasibility of e- learning as a means of off bed side training can also be explored (7).The interdepartmental movement of medical students increases their chances to get infected ,thus e learning provides an alternative platform for bed side teaching for which simulators , skill labs will be required(8).
