Perceptions of Dental Undergraduates Towards Online Education During COVID-19: Assessment from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of the Study Population (N = 930)

Variables	Groups	All (N=930)	India (n=413)	Nepal (n=274)	Sri Lanka (n=243)
Age (M±SD)	–	23.5±3.2	22.7±1.5	23.5±5.3	24.7±1.5
		N (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Sex	Male	250 (26.9)	79 (19.1)	99 (36.1)	72 (29.6)
	Female	669 (71.9)	333 (80.6)	168 (61.3)	168 (69.1)
Dental program year	First year	125 (13.4)	35 (8.5)	31 (11.3)	59 (24.3)
	Second year	238 (25.6)	103 (24.9)	79 (28.8)	56 (23.0)
	Third year	230 (24.7)	125 (30.3)	48 (17.5)	57 (23.5)
	Final year	280 (30.1)	140 (33.9)	71 (25.9)	69 (24.6)
Curriculum	Preclinical	363 (39.0)	138 (33.4)	110 (40.1)	115 (47.3)
	Clinical	510 (54.8)	265 (64.2)	119 (43.4)	126 (51.9)
Current didactic method	Completely in person	196 (21.1)	57 (13.8)	131 (47.8)	8 (3.3)
	Online	352 (37.8)	199 (48.2)	20 (7.3)	133 (54.7)
	Hybrid	368 (39.6)	151 (36.6)	121 (44.2)	96 (39.5)
Method of lecture delivery	Pre-recorded lectures	236 (25.4)	4 (1.0)	8 (2.9)	224 (92.2)
	Live sessions	441 (47.4)	300 (72.6)	139 (50.7)	2 (0.8)
	Both of above	248 (26.7)	108 (26.2)	124 (45.3)	16 (6.6)
Webtool used for lectures	Zoom	112 (12.0)	52 (12.6)	57 (20.8)	3 (1.2)
	Moodle	161 (17.3)	1 (0.2)	1 (0.4)	159 (65.4)
	Google meet	96 (10.3)	75 (18.2)	21 (7.7)	0 (0.0)
	Combination of other technology tools	411 (44.2)	187 (45.3)	143 (52.2)	81 (33.3)
	Zoom and Google meet	150 (16.1)	98 (23.7)	52 (19.0)	0 (0.0)
Webtool used for clinical demonstration	Zoom	156 (16.8)	62 (15.0)	72 (26.3)	22 (9.1)
	Moodle	133 (14.3)	2 (0.5)	0 (0.0)	131 (53.9)
	Google meet	118 (12.7)	79 (19.1)	39 (14.2)	0 (0.0)
	Zoom and Google meet	115 (12.4)	69 (16.7)	46 (16.8)	0 (0.0)
	Combination of other technology tools	408 (43.9)	201 (48.7)	117 (42.7)	90 (37.0)

Notes: Percentages may not add up to 100% because of unreported data. Other technology tools include YouTube, WhatsApp, Go to webinar etc. First and second year students: preclinical; third- and fourth-year students: clinical.

Table 2 Cross-Country Comparisons of Perceptions of Online Learning Among All Students

Country	SPL		SASP		SPA		PISPC
	M±SD	P-value	M±SD	P-value	M±SD	P value	M±SD	P-value
India	25.5±7.1	<0.0001*	18.2±5.4	<0.0001*	28.9±7.3	<0.0001*	16.7±5.2	0.001*
Nepal	23.3±7.2		17.1±5.7		27.1±6.3		15.6±5.4
Sri Lanka	29.0±5.8		19.1±4.4		30.2±6.2		17.3±4.5

Note: *P< 0.05 are statistically significant.

Abbreviations: SPL, students’ perception of learning; SASP, students’ academic self-perception; SPA, students’ perception of atmosphere; PTSPC, perceptions of transferable skills of patient care.

Table 3 Cross-Country Comparisons of Perceptions of Online Learning Among Preclinical and Clinical Subgroups

Domain	Groups	Overall		India		Nepal		Sri Lanka
		M±SD	P-value	M±SD	P-value	M±SD	P value	M±SD	P-value
SPL	Preclinical	26.5±6.7	0.02*	24.7±7.2	0.1	25.2±6.6	<0.0001*	30.0±4.7	0.01*
	Clinical	25.4±7.3		25.9±7.0		21.6±7.3		28.0±6.5
SASP	Preclinical	18.3±5.1	0.6	18.2±5.32	0.9	17.2±5.6	0.1	19.5±4.0	0.2
	Clinical	18.1±5.4		18.3±5.51		17.1±5.8		18.7±4.6
SPA	Preclinical	28.7±7.0	0.8	27.6±8.03	0.02*	28.0±6.8	0.05**	30.6±5.5	0.3
	Clinical	28.8±6.7		29.5±6.90		26.3±5.8		29.8±6.8
PTSPC	Preclinical	15.4±4.8	<0.001*	15.8±5.10	0.01*	15.1±4.7	0.2	15.3±4.6	<0.001*
	Clinical	17.4±5.1		17.2±5.20		16.0±5.9		19.1±3.5

Notes: *Statistically significant. **Marginally significant. First and second year students: preclinical; third- and fourth-year students: clinical.

Abbreviations: SPL, students’ perception of learning; SASP, students’ academic self-perception; SPA, students’ perception of atmosphere; PTSPC, perceptions of transferable skills of patient care; M, mean; SD, standard deviation.

Table 4 Reliability Diagnostics

	Overall Sample	India	Nepal	Sri Lanka
Domain (s)
Student perceptions of learning	0.843	0.830	0.835	0.827
Students’ Academic self-perception:	0.850	0.865	0.864	0.788
Students’ Perception of atmosphere	0.827	0.854	0.761	0.820
Perception of transferable skills in patient care	0.904	0.909	0.892	0.905
Entire scale	0.937	0.945	0.928	0.914

Table 5 Correlation Between Constructs of Learning Perceptions and Transferable Skills

Variables	SPL	SASP	SPA	PTSPC	Age (Years)
SPL	1	0.673**	0.685**	0.434**	0.019
SASP		1	0.625**	0.639**	−0.014
SPA			1	0.456**	−0.025
PTSPC				1	−0.004

Note: **p<0.01.

Abbreviations: SPL, students’ perception of learning; SASP, students’ academic self-perception; SPA, students’ perception of atmosphere; PTSPC, perceptions of transferable skills of patient care.

Table 6 Areas of Strength and Improvement According to the Scores of Items of DREEM Domains Across Countries

Domain	Item	India		Nepal	Sri Lanka
		Mean (SD)	S/P/N	Mean (SD)	S/P/N	Mean (SD)	S/P/N
SASP	I feel I am being well prepared for my profession	1.96 (1.05)	P	2.04 (1.10)	N	2.07 (0.95)	N
SASP	Learning strategies that worked for me before continuing to work for me now	2.13 (0.97)	N	1.97 (0.98)	P	2.39 (0.90)	N
SASP	I am able to memorize all I need	2.01 (0.99)	N	1.63 (0.95)	P	1.93 (0.94)	P
SPL	The online teaching helps to develop my competence	1.99 (1.04)	P	1.71 (1.00)	P	2.43 (0.89)	N
SPL	The online teaching helps to develop my confidence	1.95 (1.11)	P	1.67 (1.10)	P	2.16 (0.90)	N
SPL	The online teaching overemphasizes factual learning	1.79 (0.95)	P	1.92 (0.92)	P	1.71 (0.71)	P
SPL	The online teaching is too teacher-centered	1.80 (0.93)	P	1.66 (0.89)	P	2.02 (0.81)	N
SPL	The teaching in the online class is often stimulating	2.20 (0.91)	N	1.88 (0.97)	P	2.48 (0.89)	N
SPL	The online teaching is well-focused	2.04 (1.10)	N	1.69 (0.98)	P	2.53 (0.85)	N
SPL	The online teaching encourages me to be an active learner	2.16 (1.10)	N	1.89 (1.10)	P	2.38 (0.99)	N
SPA	I find the online learning experience disappointing	1.90 (1.10)	P	1.76 (0.98)	P	2.29 (0.95)	N
SPA	I am able to concentrate well	2.10 (1.10)	N	1.65 (1.02)	P	2.41 (0.92)	N

Notes: Items with a mean score> 3 mainly represent strong areas (S), items with a mean score of less than or equal to 2 are indicative of problem areas (P) requiring immediate solution. Items with a mean score between 2 and 3 represents neither strengths nor weakness areas (N).

Abbreviations: SASP, students’ academic self-perception; SPL, students’ perception of learning; SPA, students’ perception of atmosphere; SD, standard deviation; DREEM, The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure.