Revista de Morfología y Anatomía

Attitude of Science Students towards Zoom Online Lectures

Abstract

Katherine Martha Birt* and Shiby Stephens

Objective: The importance of understanding the effectiveness of online teaching was highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with students more commonly studying remotely, specifically, via Zoom. However, attitudes of science students to online lectures are largely unknown; consequently, understanding attitudes will help develop the most effective ways to deliver lectures, taking into consideration student well-being.

The hypotheses were: science students would have a negative perception towards Zoom online lectures; biomedical students would be more negative towards Zoom online lectures than other science students.

Materials and methods: To evaluate perceptions of Zoom online lectures, 20 statements were developed utilising the Thurstone and Chave method 1951. Using these statements, an online questionnaire was made, utilising Google Forms. With ethical approval, the questionnaire was sent out to undergraduate bioscience students via university email addresses. Survey responses were collated; based on agreement to the scored statements, mean scores were calculated. The Wilcoxon test was used to identify any significant statistical differences.

Results: The mean score for all science students indicated positive perception, with no significant difference between Biomedical science students and other science degrees, such as between Biomedical science and Biochemistry (p=0.3374 U=3527). Males had a more positive perception than females (p=0.02207 W=13946). Between ages 18-19 years and those aged 20+ there was no significant difference (p=0.1719 W=17586).

Conclusion: Overall, the perception of science students to Zoom online lectures was positive. There were no significant differences between different degrees: Biomedical science students were not more positive. Significant difference between genders was seen, however, age had no impact.