Faculty and Students' Attitude Toward e-learning at the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the students and faculty staff attitude for e-learning at the emergence of COVID-19.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional Google form based online survey was conducted at a medical university in Iraq between March and April 2020. The online survey was distributed to a sample of 190 faculty staff and 1706 students of a medical university in Iraq. Knowledge and attitudes towards e-learning and perceived barriers to implementing e-learning among participants were the primary outcome measures.Results: The majority of students had a negative view of the simplicity of using e-learning compared with higher agreement among faculty staff. Most students disagreed with most aspects of the usefulness or strengths of e-learning. Both students and faculty staff agreed that e-learning faces challenges, including poor internet connectivity (79%) and computer literacy (71%). The highest percentage of the students (42.8%) preferred to have paper examinations in the study halls for the final written assessment. The percentages of the faculty staff who preferred paper examination in the study halls (31.6%), online assessment (31.1%), and delay assessment for the following year (33.2%) were almost similar. Conclusion: The students and faculty staff are not ready for e-learning, with technical inadequacies being the main barrier. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted medical education, proper technical and institutional foundations are essential for successful e-learning, especially during social distancing measures.