Comparison of Stress Levels with Online and Offline Mode of Teaching in Medical Undergraduate Students during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Medical education in India being stressful, precipitated further due to the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) and hence shifting to the online mode of education. The sudden implementation of online teaching learning methods, lack of communication between teachers and students and further the tedious modes of assessments through online methods created chaos among the students subjecting the students under enormous stress.

Aim: To compare the stress levels in online and offline mode of teaching in medical undergraduate students.

Materials and Methods: The study was designed as a cross-sectional observational study. It was conducted in two Government Medical Colleges located in Kanyakumari and Thiruvananmalai of Tamil Nadu during April 2021 to December 2021 after the students returned to the conventional teaching method from digital learning (during COVID-19). This study assesses the stress by using Perceived Stress Scale, among young healthy individuals (390 medical graduates of either sex) who were in their preclinical, paraclinical and clinical years of the medical curriculum. The questionnaire comprised of general demographic data and consent form (six items) information on online classes and offline classes (18 items) and Perceived Stress Scale- 10 questionnaire to assess stress during online and offline mode. The obtained results were tabulated and was statistically analysed by Pearson Chi-square test. Using the software R (Programming Language) version 2021 for used for anlaysis.

Results: Out of the 390 students participated in the study 204 (52.30%) of the students were from Government Kanyakumari Medical College, with 98 (48.04%) male and 106 (51.96%) female students. While the remaining 186 (47.70%) students were from Government Thiruvannamalai Medical College, with 84 (45.17%) male and 102 (54.83%) were female students. The mean age of the participating students were 19.6±2.4 years. The difference in the number of scheduled hours of classes, duration of each classes were more during offline classes compared to online classes. Whereas the attention span of the students were more during offline classes of >30 minutes compared to online classes with attention span of <20 minutes, in most of the students. Further the study revealed that online mode of teaching was highly stressful to the students compared to offline teaching which was moderately stressful (highly significant), further the students experienced other adverse effects related to stress such us deterioration of vision, lack of concentration, difficulty in sleep etc.

Conclusion: The study emphasises that irrespective of the mode of teaching, medical undergraduate students experience stress under any form, however online mode of teaching is much more stressful than offline teaching.