Factors affecting Saudi medical students' engagement during synchronous and asynchronous eLearning and their impacts on the students' academic achievement: a national survey.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic learning (eLearning) has become a necessity in education. eLearning can be either synchronous, where classes are conducted in real-time, or asynchronous, where students can access the class material at any time. Student-instructor interaction has become essential to the educational process. In the literature, most studies have focused on the preferred methods of eLearning and the barriers to interaction in eLearning. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the factors that affect students' interactions during eLearning and their impacts on students' academic achievements.

METHODS: A national cross-sectional study was conducted among clinical and pre-clinical medical students who were attending universities in five regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using a bespoke online self-administered questionnaire covering sociodemographic features, eLearning barriers, preferences, and the impact of eLearning on students' performance and understanding.

RESULTS: This study involved 1371 medical students, of whom 52.37% were male and 51.13% were in their pre-clinical years of medical college. Of the participants, 59.88% (n = 821) preferred synchronous modalities of eLearning, and 33.33% (n = 457) avoided interaction during synchronous lectures. The main predictors of avoiding interaction during online lectures were being male in the clinical years of medical studies, being in a quiet atmosphere, having difficulties using the eLearning platform, having a poor internet connection, having a visual learning style, being insecure, and the presence of opposite-sex students and facilitators. In addition, 12.25% students (n = 168) reported a lower grade point average (GPA), whereas 11.96% (n = 164) reported an improved GPA after eLearning compared with in-person/onsite learning sessions. The GPA fluctuation was related to gender, personality type, learning style, interaction, and eLearning modality preference. Moreover, the students' understanding was enhanced by recorded lectures (n = 1,093, 79.72%) and supportive multimedia (n = 1,037, 75.64%), and the easy to use platform (n = 1037, 75.64%).

CONCLUSION: The synchronous modality of eLearning was the preferred teaching method among the medical students. However, multiple individual, technical, and environmental factors affected their interaction, performance, and understanding during these sessions. Hence, future interventional research is recommended to overcome interaction barriers and enhance student performance and understanding of eLearning.