Table 3 Summary of themes and sub-themes
Themes | Sub-themes | Codes |
|---|---|---|
Challenges | Technical | “…the low capacity of the Internet in our country [Iran] has caused our online meetings to be associated with serious disruptions.”[S05] “Sometimes the power goes out. This prevents us from accessing the class…”[S09] |
Socioeconomic | “The price of a laptop has gone up a lot. I know many of my friends who cannot afford to buy an appropriate laptop!” [S019] | |
Environmental distractors | “The family does not notice at all that I have an online class. I’m at the class being called…” [S010] | |
Supervision and evaluation | “Online tests are not really fair … the response time is very short” [S022] “I do not think online exams are appropriate because some students cheat and we cannot accurately assess their performance.” [F01] | |
Workload | “Creating slides and videos is really time consuming. The bulk of my time is devoted to preparing educational content.” [F02] | |
Digital competence | “Interestingly, many professors are unfamiliar with how to use online platforms. Sometimes it takes several minutes to take a screen sharing!” [S06] | |
Interactions | “…, interactions between students and faculty members are not well established.” [S016] | |
Motivation | “There are so many one-sided online meetings that bore us. I think the professor himself/herself gets tired of this style of teaching!” [S012] | |
Sessions-related issues | “Often meetings do not start at a pre-arranged time. This causes our plans to be disrupted and mental conflicts to arise for us!” [S023] | |
Hands-on and clinical training | “In the future, advances in technology may help to hold clinical classes virtually, but at present, existing technologies cannot replace student interaction with patients in clinical environment.” [F04] | |
Opportunities | Technological innovations | “The online courses have led to the use of new methods to convey educational content, such as developing applications that use artificial intelligence to simulate body movements.” [S017] |
Infrastructure development | “Despite the shortcomings that still exist, online classes have led to the provision of new electronic devices and tools that have increased the quality of education.” [F02] | |
Flexible learning environment | “Online education makes it possible for us to attend classes with any physical condition. It is very appropriate from this perspective.” [S03] | |
Student-centered learning | “Online education has led us to visit more educational and research sites and use the educational materials provided in them. Somehow, it has increased students’ self-learning” [S015] | |
Availability of contents | “Even if we are absent from the class, we still have easy access to the content of the class …” [S08] | |
Time and cost saving | “We no longer have to be in so much traffic to get to university. Now we come to class very easily from home… It saves us both time and money!” [S020] | |
High concentration | “My concentration during online meetings is very good. On the other hand, online meetings make me ask questions of the teacher with higher confidence.” [S01] | |
More self-confident | ||
Recommendations | Technical infrastructure | “In my opinion, new systems and software should be created to facilitate clinical education in this period.” [F01] |
Team dynamics | “Students need to work more closely together in online sessions and help resolve their own issues through member-checking.” [F03] | |
Hybrid courses | “It is really hard to learn clinical topics online. I think it is better to have most clinical sessions in-person.” [S07] | |
Time management | “Both students and faculty members need to be more committed to starting online classes on time.” [S011] | |
Awareness | “More training and orientation classes should be held to familiarize faculty and students with how to use online platforms.” [S019] |