Study On Advantages Of Classroom Teaching As Compared To The Online Teaching

Introduction: The deadly coronavirus disease that began in China in December 2019 spread to various parts of the planet in a few months. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. To prevent the uninhibited spread of the coronavirus, the world was forced to go into a complete shutdown. This sudden shutting down as we all have been impacted by the Covid Pandemic in all aspects of life including education. Due to the strict lock down and other preventive measures teaching mode shifted from Classroom teaching to the online mode platforms like Google meet, Zoom. According to a study by the International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), a maximum (of 38.2%) of respondents disagree with the fact that online learning through the Internet is the same as offline learning in the classroom and 42.7% of the respondents face technical problems during online learning. Only 25% agree that online learning tools help to improve student’s academic performance. Maximum (53.3%) respondents prefer online learning during the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 46.5% of respondents strongly agree that students will be more focused on offline than online learning. About 38.9% agree that offline learning makes students learn more than online learning. Hence, we conducted a study at Dr D Y Patil Medical College Hospital, Pimpri, Pune taking the feedback of medical students on online& offline learning methods. Materials & Methods: This is an observational, descriptive study at Dr D Y Patil Medical College, Pimpri, Pune from October 2023 to November 2023.Students of first batch who were willing to participate in the survey were included in the study. Students who were ill and not interested in participating were excluded from the study. Google form questionnaire was circulated amongst the students and responses were collected in the Microsoft Excel sheet. The data were then represented using appropriate diagrams ,charts & frequency distribution tables as and where applicable. RESULTS: A Google Form Questionnaire was given to MBBS students to compare the Online (covid -19 times) &Offline Teaching (Pre covid times). Around 75 students participated in this study. Students were asked about both Online & Offline teaching. Table 1 shows responses of questionnaire given to the students. In our study we found 41% of students were not attentive in Online classes as compared to 12% students who were attentive. On the scale of understanding the topic 43% students had good understanding of the topic in Offline classes & 14% had poor understanding.54% of the students missed Face to Face interaction in Online Classes as compared to 9% who didn’t miss Face to Face interaction.78% students opined that Classroom Teaching is a better option of Teaching .31% students opined that offline teaching cannot be replaced by online teaching, test of the students were not sure. CONCLUSION-The global pandemic covid 19, had made mandatory for the students to use online platforms as learning mode. Although online teaching methods has opened a new plethora for learning among students, it can never completely replace the offline teaching. With all the observations from our study, we conclude that online medical education has many gaps as compared to the offline education and offline classes found to be more interactive, attentive & easy to understand. Hence, we suggest the blending of offline & online teaching methods for the benefit of students. However physical & practical classes are very essential for skill development.