The Effectiveness of Online Education in Basic Medical Sciences Courses during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Saudi Arabia: Cross-Sectional Study

Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) is an emerging pandemic that has caused significant disruptions
to education, resulting in marked scholar closures across the world. The present study
documents the student perception of the online educational process at six universities in Saudi Arabia
during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The individual variable factors, i.e., institution, sex, and
blended learning, that might influence student perception were also investigated. In this respect,
a questionnaire that assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the online learning process and student
perception was emailed to a total of 17,230 students from 3 institutions (medical, applied health
and dental students) affiliated with six universities in Saudi Arabia. Principal component analysis
(PCA) was performed to determine the validity of the questionnaire. A total of 4850 (28%) students
responded to the questionnaire and 46.9% (n = 2275) of the respondents were highly satisfied with
their online education. Analyses of the scores from the students showed a highly significant difference
(p = 0.000) between the male and female students. Applied health students (highly satisfied
score = 63.13) were the most satisfied with their online education, while medical students (highly
satisfied score = 39.3) were the least satisfied with this education. In addition, applied health, dental
and medical students showed a significantly higher score in favor of blended learning after schools
re-open (p = 0.000). Collectively, student satisfaction with online education was common, and blended
learning was preferred over the traditional format by both genders and all the students. The present
data provide interesting contributions and evidence for policy makers and implementers, which
might be helpful for the judgment side of decision making