Performance of Medical Laboratory Science Students in Online vs. Face-to-Face During COVID-19 at Alfajr College, Sudan 2020: A Comparative Analysis.

Abstract

Worldwide, academic institutions adopted online education as a learning strategy for curriculum delivery after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown due to safety measures. Due to several challenges, the experience of online methods in low-income countries Sudan as an example needs adjustment and evaluation. This article aimed to evaluate the experience of the online learning method during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) among medical laboratory science students at Alfajr College for Science and Technology, Sudan. This was a retrospective comparative study aimed to assess the student's performance in the online learning education method compared to the traditional method (face-to-face). The total number of (283) undergraduate students data were retrieved for all second 75(26.6%), third 84(29.4%), and fourth-year 124(44%) students. The final scores of online semesters were compared versus face-to-face semesters. The present study showed in the second-year no significant differences in students’ performance between the online versus the face-to-face in chemical pathology (P. value= 0.075), parasitology (P. value= 0.075), and microbiology courses (P. value= 0.077). While in the histopathology course the performance was significantly higher online versus face-to-face (P. value= <0.001). In the third year, there were no significant differences in chemical pathology (P. value= 0.457) and parasitology (P. value=0.859) between online versus face-to-face. However, in microbiology and haematology courses, the performance was significantly higher in the online versus face-to-face (P. value=0.010, and <0.001) respectively. In the fourth year, there were no significant differences between online versus face-to-face in chemical pathology, haematology, histopathology, and microbiology (P. value= 0.404, 0.121, 0.431, and 0.449) respectively. There were significant differences between the students’ performance concerning class rank in haematology, chemical pathology, and microbiology courses for the online semesters (P. value= 0.001, 0.006, and 0.001) respectively. The experience of online education in Sudan is a successful and viable alternative to face-to-face as indicated by this study although the obstacles and barriers.