Online anatomy education in a Nigerian university : overview of the challenges encountered by the basic medical trainees during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: At the onset of the Corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, online learning system was adopted to prevent disruption of academic activities during the ongoing academic year. This study assessed the challenges encountered during online anatomy learning by the undergraduate trainee of our institution during the pandemic.

METHODS: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 85 students of the nursing science, physiotherapy and human anatomy programmes. The challenges included five thematic areas related to change in learning environment, personal learning, finance, health and technology.

RESULTS: The study participants included 64.71% under 20 years and 35.29% above 20 years; 43.53% males and 56.47% females; 52.9% Nursing science, 31.8% physiotherapy and 15.3% human anatomy students. Among the study participants, 63% reported environmental change-related challenges, 57% reported personal learning-related challenges, 53% reported financial-related challenges, 36% reported health-related challenges and 40% reported technology-related challenges.

CONCLUSION: Among the plethora of challenges encountered by the trainees during the online anatomy learning, the most prevalent included change in learning environment, personal-learning and financial-related while the challenges associated with students’ health and technology were the least prevalent.