Assessing the Role of Internal Motivation and Extrinsic Factors on Online Undergraduate Medical Teaching in a Resource-Poor Setting During Covid-19 Pandemic in North India: An Observational Study

PURPOSE: The unprecedented academic environment brought by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the evolution of online teaching as an ineluctable tool for education and training. To ensure that the undergraduate teaching curriculum does not become another victim of the virus, online teaching was started in most medical schools. The undergraduate students enrolled in our institution hail mostly from rural areas and small townships with limited internet connectivity and accessibility due to poor socioeconomic status. This study highlights the students’ perception of and motivation towards online classes in respect to internet connectivity and accessibility during COVID-19 pandemic. Since online teaching is essentially a student-centered learning approach, the motivational level of students plays an important role in making teaching protocols effective. METHODS: A prospective qualitative and quantitative assessment of perceptions of 498 medical undergraduate students from 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Vibhuti Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India was done using validated online questionnaires and anonymous voluntary feedback during the government-imposed lockdown from March 2020 to November 2020. RESULTS: On evaluation of 260 responses received, it was found that the majority of students were motivated to attend the online classes but external factors like internet connectivity and household environment were affecting their motivation on a daily basis and thus decreasing the motivation levels. Validity of feedback by Cronbach’s alpha was 0.907 and Pearson coefficient between internet connectivity and motivation factors was 0.419 (p-value <0.001). CONCLUSION: The extrinsic factors of internet connectivity and household environment hamper the motivation of students to attend online classes; this should be considered as an important factor to enable the desired student-led learning as mandated by competency-based medical education.