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. 2023 Apr 27;18(4):e0284980. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284980

Readiness, barriers, and attitude of students towards online medical education amidst COVID-19 pandemic: A study among medical students of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria

Edmund Ndudi Ossai 1,2, Irene Ifeyinwa Eze 1,2,*, Chukwuma David Umeokonkwo 2, Chukwuemeka Obioma Izuagba 1, Lawrence Ulu Ogbonnaya 1,2
Editor: Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi3
PMCID: PMC10138474  PMID: 37104375

Abstract

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive disruption to medical education in Nigeria, necessitating the call for online medical education in the country. This study assessed the readiness, barriers, and attitude of medical students of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria, to online medical education.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design was employed. All matriculated medical students of the university participated in the study. Information was obtained using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire which was self-administered. Good attitude towards information and communication technology (ICT) based medical education was determined by the proportion of respondents correctly answering 60% of nine variables. Readiness for online classes was determined by the proportion of students who preferred either a combination of physical and online lectures or only online medical education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Chi-square test and multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression analysis were used in the study. A p-value of <0.05 determined the level of statistical significance.

Results

Four hundred and forty-three students participated in the study (response rate; 73.3%). The mean age of the students was 23.0±3.2 years. The majority of the respondents, 52.4%, were males. The students’ most preferred sources for studying before the COVID-19 pandemic included textbooks, 55.1% and lecture notes, 19.0%. The commonly visited websites included Google, 75.2%, WhatsApp, 70.0% and YouTube, 59.1%. Less than half, 41.1%, have a functional laptop. The majority, 96.4%, have a functioning email address, while 33.2% participated in a webinar during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though 59.2% had a good attitude towards online medical education, only 56.0% expressed readiness for online medical education. The major barriers to online medical education included poor internet connectivity, 27.1%, poor e-learning infrastructure, 12.9% and students not having laptops, 8.6%. Predictors of readiness for online medical education included previous participation in a webinar, AOR = 2.1, (95%CI: 1.3–3.2) and having a good attitude towards IT-based medical education, AOR = 3.5, (95%CI: 2.3–5.2).

Conclusions

The majority of the students showed readiness for online medical education. Lessons from COVID-19 pandemic necessitate the initiation of online medical education. University authorities should ensure that every enrolled medical student owns or have access to a dedicated laptop through a university-mediated arrangement. Adequate attention should be given to the development of e-learning infrastructure, including steady internet services within the confines of the university.

Introduction

Worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors, including the educational sector [1]. The pandemic created an enormous disruption of education systems in history, involving nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and continents [2], adversely affecting students’ academic expectations in the sub-Saharan Africa [35]. The fast spread of COVID-19 brought about many changes in the educational sector, including restrictions on movement and lockdowns of institutions of learning [6, 7]. In Nigeria, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted higher institutions following the lockdown in many ways: disruption of the academic calendar, teaching and learning gap, loss of workforce, reduction of international education, and cancellation of local and international conferences [8]. Furthermore, the coronavirus pandemic exposed massive socio-economic inequality and learning disparity in Nigeria’s education system, with wealthy families sending their children to private schools equipped for remote learning in contrast to the poor public school facilities [9].

The educational landscape is undergoing a radical transformation to cushion the effect of the pandemic and revamp the education system, including shifting toward the e-learning [10, 11]. E-learning can enhance knowledge efficiency through easy access to a large amount of information within the global village, promoting personal knowledge accumulation and group knowledge sharing [12, 13]. Furthermore, e-learning increases satisfaction and decreases stress by enabling students and lecturers to participate in class in their comfort zone and is cost-effective as it reduces travel time and infrastructural development in terms of buildings [14, 15].

Even with the numerous benefits of e-learning, developing countries, including Nigeria, are still challenged to shift from the traditional teaching method to e-learning during the pandemic [16]. The challenges arise from varying degrees of preparedness of the institutions, including the inadequate skill of lecturers [16], social inequalities [1] and lack of infrastructures, irregular power supply, high cost of internet data services and personal computer (PC) and Laptop, poor internet connectivity [17], all of which threaten its applicability. Furthermore, although around 83% of Nigerians have mobile phone connections, the proportion is skewed towards the few high socio-economic and urban households, most of whom are private school students with a learning advantage over their public school peers [9]. Therefore, assessing the barriers to e-learning in terms of the availability of digital facilities, including the adequacy in quantity and quality, can help academic administrators create mechanisms that can enhance users’ attitudes and readiness for adopting the e-learning platform.

E-learning system has become the most preferred learning platform during global pandemic periods such as COVID-19, where movement is restricted [10, 11]. However, there needs to be a more empirical examination of the factors underlying the adoption of e-learning systems. Factors such as perceived usefulness of e-learning, ease of use, pressure to use, good technical skills and the availability of resources needed to use e-learning impact students’ attitudes and readiness towards the e-learning [18, 19]. Yet, assessment of the user characteristics in e-learning systems, especially in a developing country like Nigeria, appears to be limited, despite being a prerequisite to introducing successful e-learning systems [18]. Successful system implementation and adoption by learners requires a solid understanding of user acceptance processes with these technologies. Assessing the attitude is vital in analysing consumer readiness to adopt, as a favourable attitude shows a greater probability that learners will be ready to accept the new learning system [19, 20]. Acceptance of the new learning system will be worthwhile as earlier studies reported enhanced knowledge efficiency [12, 13] and mean performance of users in favour of online education compared to the same course delivered face to face [21]. Since users’ views tend to impact the advancement of the e-learning [18, 19], understanding how students perceive and react to elements of e-learning and factors that influence readiness for effective e-learning is essential and timely. This study aimed to ascertain the barriers, attitudes, and readiness for adopting e-learning among medical students in a Nigerian university.

Methods

Description of the study area

The College of Health Sciences of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria, was established in 1999, the same year the university was established. Based on the recommendation of the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council, the university admits an average of 100 medical students every year. The study of Medicine in Nigeria runs for six years, each year being recognized as a level. The first year of study (also called 100 level) is called the preliminary year, and during this period, academic activities take place at the Faculty of Science of the University. The second and third years of study are the pre-clinical training period, while the fourth to sixth year is the clinical training period. The university’s medical students receive clinical training at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, Nigeria.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on medical education

The university, including the medical school, was closed down by the Nigeria Government during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic on 19th March 2020; after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic on 11th March 2020. The closure involved all higher institutions in the country and aimed to curtail the spread of the virus. Like many public universities in Nigeria, the university did not initiate any form of online learning during the period the university was closed down. The study occurred between September and October 2021, after the university was re-opened in February 2021 for academic activities following the COVID-19 lockdown.

Study design and study population

A cross-sectional design was employed. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) was used to construct and conduct the study. All matriculated medical students at the university were included in the study. The students who were not present on the days of data collection and those who refused to consent to participate were excluded from the study. A total of four hundred and forty-three (443) medical students participated in the study representing a response rate of 73.8%.

Study instrument

A pre-tested, semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire that the researchers designed after a review of some literature [8, 13] was used for data collection. The questionnaire was pretested on 45 medical students (10% of the study population) at another university.

Data management

Data entry and analysis were done using International Business Machine (IBM) Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25. Chi-square test and multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression analysis were used in the research, and a p-value of <0.05 determined the level of statistical significance. The outcome measure of the study was the readiness of the medical students to commence online medical education at the university. This was represented by the proportion of students who preferred in-class and e-learning approaches and e-learning methods only in response to how to continue medical education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, a good attitude towards information and communication technology (ICT) based medical education was determined by the proportion of respondents correctly answering 60% of nine variables. In determining the predictors of the readiness of the students to commence online medical education, variables with a p-value of <0.2 on bivariate analysis were included in the binary logistic regression model. The binary logistic regression analysis results were presented using an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence interval. A p-value of <0.05 determined the statistical significance level.

Ethical consideration

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Research and Ethics Committee of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria. (Reference number, EBSU/DRIC/UREC/Vol.04/064). The students signed a written informed consent form before participating in the study. The nature of the research and their involvement were known to them. The students were informed that participation in the survey was voluntary and assured that all information provided through the questionnaire would be kept confidential.

Results

Table 1 shows the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. Four hundred and forty-three students participated in the study (response rate; 73.3%). The mean age of the students was 23.0±3.2 years. The majority of the respondents, 52.4%, were males and single 428 (96.9%). Most students were in 300 academic level 102(23.0%) and 400 academic level 103(23.3%).

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents.

Variable (n = 443) Frequency (%)
Age of respondents
Mean±(SD) 23.0±3.2
Age of respondents in groups
<20 years 37 (8.4)
20–24 years 291 (65.7)
25–29 years 99 (22.3)
≥30 years 16 (3.6)
Gender
Male 232 (52.4)
Female 211(47.6)
Academic level
100 level 23 (5.2)
200 level 93 (21.0)
300 level 102 (23.0)
400 level 103 (23.3)
500 level 64 (14.4)
600 level 58 (13.1)
Marital status
Single 428 (96.6)
Married 15 (3.4)
Religion of respondent
Christianity 437 (98.6)
Islam 5 (1.2)
Traditional religion 1 (0.2)
Ethnicity of respondent
Igbo 424 (95.7)
Others** 19 (4.3)
Educational attainment of Father
No formal education 28 (6.3)
Primary education 48 (10.8)
Secondary education 82 (18.5)
Tertiary education 285 (64.3)
Educational attainment of Mother
No formal education 28 (6.3)
Primary education 45 (10.2)
Secondary education 77 (17.4)
Tertiary education 293 (66.1)

Table 2 shows access to and application of internet services among the respondents. Majority of the respondent had an android phone 373 (84.2%2), a functional e-mail address 427 (96.4%) and access to the internet 414 (93.5%). Less than half, 184 (41.1%), had a functional laptop, and 147 (33.25) participated in webinars during the pandemic. The most preferred source for studying before the COVID-19 pandemic were textbooks 224(55.1%) and lecture notes 84(19.0%). The commonly visited websites included google 333 (75.2%), WhatsApp 310 (70%), and YouTube 262 (59.1%). School-based activities that the internet was mostly used were course registration 362 (81.7%) and payment of school fees 327(73.8%).

Table 2. Access to and application of internet services among the respondents.

Variable (n = 443) Frequency (%)
Respondent has a functional laptop
Yes 182 (41.1)
Ownership of devices
Android phone 373 (84.2)
Tablet 49 (11.1)
iphone 46 (10.4)
Internet modem 46 (10.4)
Respondent has a functional email address
Yes 427 (96.4)
Respondent has access to the internet
Yes 414 (93.5)
Respondent participated in Webinar during the pandemic
Yes 147 (33.2)
The most preferred source for studying in medical school before COVID-19 **
Textbooks 244 (55.1)
Lecture notes 84 (19.0)
E-textbooks 65 (14.7)
Internet 39 (8.8)
Uncertain 11 (2.5)
Commonly visited websites **
Google 333 (75.2)
WhatsApp 310 (70.0)
YouTube 262 (59.1)
Facebooks 164 (37.0)
Instagram 127 (28.7)
Twitter 114 (25.7)
Google scholar 40 (9.0)
Yahoo 39 (8.8)
School-based activities that use the Internet before COVID-19 **
Course registration 362 (81.7)
Payment of school fees 327 (73.8)
Checking results after examination 301 (67.9)
Further reading after lectures 242 (54.6)
Research work/projects 227 (51.2)
Registration for examinations 224 (50.6)
Submission of assignments 123 (27.8)
Lectures 36 (8.1)

**multiple responses encouraged

Table 3 shows readiness to online medical education. Majority of the respondents, 235 (53.3%), expressed readiness for a combination of in-class and e-learning approaches to medical education amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Only 12 (2.7%) preferred e-learning methods only.

Table 3. Readiness for online medical education among the respondents.

Variable (n = 443) Frequency
Approach to medical education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
Physical learning only 184 (41.5)
In-class and e-learning approaches 235 (53.3)
Rely on e-learning methods only 12 (2.7)
Uncertain 11 (2.5)
Readiness for online medical education
Yes 248 (56.0)
No 195 (44.0)

Table 4 shows barriers to online medical education. The major barriers to online medical education included poor internet connectivity, 120 (27.1%), poor e-learning infrastructure, 57(12.9%), and students not having laptops, 38(8.6%). The majority of the respondents, 275(62.1%), reported that the university has no functional virtual library.

Table 4. Barriers for online medical education among the respondents.

Variable (n = 443) Frequency (%)
Approach to medical education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
Physical learning only 184 (41.5)
In-class and e-learning approaches 235 (53.3)
Rely on e-learning methods only 12 (2.7)
Uncertain 11 (2.5)
Readiness for online medical education
Yes 248 (56.0)
No 195 (44.0)
The main barrier to e-learning application in medical school
Poor internet connectivity 120 (27.1)
Poor e-learning infrastructure 57 (12.9)
Students do not have laptops 38 (8.6)
High demand on time 36 (8.1)
Lack of technical skills on the part of students 33 (7.4)
Cost of internet services 31 (7.0)
Inadequate preparation for medical practice 21 (4.7)
Reduction in the interaction between teachers and medical students 18 (4.1)
Poor preparation of medical students for examinations 13 (2.9)
No response 15 (3.4)
Need to increase school fees because of the introduction of e-learning
Yes 24 (5.4)
No 419 (94.6)
University has a functional virtual library
Yes 66 (14.9)
No 275 (62.1)
Don’t know 102 (23.0)

Table 5 shows the attitude towards information and technology-based medical education. Overall good attitude towards online medical education was noted in 263 (59.4%) respondents. However, 68.8% of the respondents viewed that lectures for medical teaching should be made available on the university e-learning portal, and 60.9% opined that online learning platforms should complement in-class teachings in medical school.

Table 5. Attitude towards information & communication technology (ICT) based medical education.

Variable (n = 443) Frequency (%)
Lectures for medical teaching should be made available on the university e-learning portal 305 (68.8)
Physical lectures only should continually be used for medical education 232 (52.4)
Every medical student should have a functional laptop 204 (46.0)
Online learning platforms should be used to complement in-class teachings in medical school 270 (60.9)
There is no need for the use of computers in medical education 255 (57.6)
Need for training students in e-learning content development 302 (68.2)
Adoption of e-learning could increase the satisfaction of medical students with training 290 (65.5)
E-learning could improve the quality of learning in a medical school 299 (67.5)
Need to improve e-learning infrastructure in medical school 330 (74.5)
Attitude towards ICT-based medical education
Good 263 (59.4)
Poor 180 (40.6)

(Only correct responses indicated on the table)

Table 6 shows predictors of readiness for online medical education. The predictors of readiness for online medical education included previous participation in a webinar, AOR = 2.1, (95%CI: 1.3–3.2) and having a good attitude towards ICT-based medical education, AOR = 3.5, (95%CI: 2.3–5.2).

Table 6. Predictors of readiness for online medical education among the respondents.

Variable Readiness for online lectures (n = 443) p-value Adjusted odds ratio 95%confidence interval
Frequency (%)
Age of respondents in groups
<20 years 21 (56.8) 0.761 NA
20–24 years 166 (57.0)
≥25 years 61 (53.0)
Gender
Male 138 (59.5) 0.120 1.307 0.873–1.956
Female 110 (52.1) 1
Period of training
Non-clinical students 126 (57.8) 0.448 NA
Clinical students 122 (54.2)
Marital status
Single 243 (56.8) 0.072 2.096 0.632–6.951
Married 5 (33.3) 1
Have a functional laptop
Yes 107 (57.5) 0.577 NA
No 141 (54.9)
Participation in Webinar during the COVID-19 pandemic
Yes 102 (69.4) <0.00 2.080 1.343–3.222
No 146 (49.3) 1
Attitude towards ICT-based med. education
Good 181 (68.8) <0.001 3.459 2.303–5.195
Poor 67 (37.2) 1

ICT Information & communication technology NA Not applicable

Discussions

The study found that students’ major barriers to online medical education included poor internet connectivity, poor e-learning infrastructure, unavailability of personal laptops, and lack of functional virtual libraries in the university. This finding is consistent with the result of earlier studies on assessing the availability and utilisation of ICT resources in teaching in Nigeria, which revealed that the availability of digital resources for effective instructional delivery in schools is relatively low [22, 23]. Under such situations, even if teachers are well trained, make themselves and their instructional materials available online, and are willing to impart knowledge to the students, they are hindered by the lack or inadequacy of the technological equipment and facilities [10]. This is because, many students lack the means to access online materials from home due to poor connectivity or the unavailability of personal laptops [10]. The finding aligns with a previous study which noted that nearly half of the low-income families lacked sufficient ICT devices at home [10]. This research revealed the need for adequate availability of digital resources amidst and post covid-19 era in Nigerian Universities. This view is supported by an earlier study which showed a smoother and positive shift for schools which provided adequate resources for students and academic staff [9].

The study found that more than half of the respondents had a good attitude towards e-learning. This finding collaborates with some cross-sectional studies conducted in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, where four-fifths of the respondents had a favourable attitude and agreed that online education is the alternative measure for conversational in-class teaching and learning for future occurrences of any pandemic [19, 24]. The result is also supported by the findings of Pingle, who reported that undergraduates in India have a higher acceptance level of comfort working with computers and other e-learning packages than in the traditional face-to-face classroom [25]. As revealed from the findings, there may be a link between attitude and the perceived usefulness of the technology, as most students agreed that e-learning could improve the quality of learning and satisfaction with training. Thus, the high perceived usefulness positively influences students’ attitudes towards using e-learning systems. This position is congruent with the findings of an earlier study, which suggest that the most critical belief underlying an individual’s attitude towards adopting a new technology depends on the person’s perceptions of the usefulness of the technology [19]. To improve students’ attitudes towards e-learning, training and information sessions on e-learning need to focus primarily on how the technology can help improve the efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness of students’ learning process rather than on the actual use of the technology.

On students’ readiness for online medical education, the study revealed that about half of the respondents expressed willingness for a combination of in-class and e-learning approaches, while a minor two percent preferred reliance on e-learning methods only. The findings agree with a study where willingness could have been better due to reported minimal online teacher-student interaction [26]. The extent of readiness may be related to the numerous barriers to online access reported by the respondents, which is common in developing countries like Nigeria.

The findings show a significant relationship between previous experience with e-learning and readiness to use an e-learning system. Those who participated in webinars during the COVID-19 pandemic were twice more ready to adopt e-learning than those who did not. The finding could be explained by the fact that users’ prior experience with technology affects their views about technology in general. Users or potential adopters of the system would be ready to engage in the behaviour because of previous hands-on expertise. This assertion resonates with the student’s view on training in e-learning content development. However, our findings contradict a study in Nigeria, which showed no significant relationship between the level of computer experience and intention to use e-learning systems [19]. In addition, our findings show that students with good attitudes towards using the e-learning system are three times more likely to be ready for e-learning than those with a poor attitude. Attitude indicates, to a certain degree, the possibility of adopting certain behaviours, and students’ favourable and positive attitude towards an e-learning system suggests a greater probability that they will accept it [19].

Strengths

The main strength of this study is its focus on user characteristics which influence the adoption of e-learning systems, considering that it is a prerequisite to introducing successful e-learning systems [16]

Study limitations

The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected medical education in Nigeria, with the closure of all higher institutions for one year to curtail the virus’s spread. However, this closure may have affected the students differently. This study took place about seven months after the medical school was re-opened. Thus, students’ responses may have been influenced by the various forms affected by the closure. Also, the participation of the first-year students in the study was limited. This was due to their involvement in the university registration formalities, which were delayed because of the university’s closure at the pandemic’s peak. In all, the study provided insight into the readiness of medical students to commence online medical education.

Conclusion

The study concludes that most students were ready and had a good attitude towards online medical education. However, lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic reveal lapses and gaps in adopting online medical education. These barriers to e-learning range from poor internet connectivity, poor e-learning infrastructure, unavailability of personal laptops, high internet subscription costs, and lack of functional virtual library in the university, and need to be addressed.

To improve the attitude and readiness of students for online medical education, the Nigerian government should put in place measures that ensure continuity, inclusion and equity for all learners and mitigate learning disruption during this pandemic and beyond. For example, the government should invest in providing solar-powered educational gadgets pre-loaded with offline academic resources to learners and other e-learning infrastructure, including steady internet services within the confines of the university. In addition, University authorities should ensure that every enrolled medical student owns or have access to a dedicated laptop through a university-mediated arrangement. Furthermore, the institution’s authorities should implement staff training and capacity building on e-learning. To benefit from the advantages of e-learning, such as wide coverage, cost-effectiveness, uniformity, fast teaching and learning process, and rapid economic development through e-commerce, compliance with e-learning in tertiary institutions should go beyond the COVID-19 lockdown period. Thus, to facilitate students’ readiness and positive attitudes and actual usage of e-learning systems, the universities should ensure the supply of suitable support in terms of technological, economic, and organizational issues aimed at guaranteeing a high level of education to their students.

Supporting information

S1 Dataset

(SAV)

S1 File

(DOCX)

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the students for participating in the study.

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files.

Funding Statement

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

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Decision Letter 0

Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi

2 Mar 2023

PONE-D-22-18325Readiness, barriers, and attitude of students towards online medical education amidst COVID-19 pandemic: a study among medical students of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, NigeriaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Eze,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This study describes the barriers to online learning during COVID-19 in Nigeria which is a gap in literature. However there are some changes that need to be made and the recommendations are as follows:

Line 130,131 --Reword the sentence for clarity "The university was eventually re-opened by February 2021. The study occurred between September and October 2021, about seven months after the school was re-opened"

Please detail the questionnaire used in the study by referencing or adding it in the appendix

Table 1,2,3 - merge the frequency and percentage in one column

Table 2- merge the frequency and percentage in one column, change "i phone" to "iphone", change "Internet modern to internet modem. The email address, webinar and internet access question in the table without a Yes should be structured.

Reviewer #2: Dear

I realize that authors have many journals to consider when they want to publish their work, so I appreciate your interest in PLOS ONE; I am very sorry not to be able to write in a more positive way. It is evident that you have put a great deal of effort into this project and I want to praise your efforts. Fortunately, the actual contribution from your study is clear and, the manuscript as currently written suggests that it might be suitable for sharing information about online medical education amidst COVID-19 pandemic topic, but the paper that you reported, needs few major edits. I should like to thank you for give me an opportunity to consider this work for publication.

It may be that the you would like to consider resubmitting it, in which case I hope that the comments from my review may help you to revise it before resubmitting it. These comments are given below.

Best Regards

- General review:

The paper is very interesting, but essentially needs to be rewritten to make it more linear scientifically and narrative structured

- Introduction section:

is too poor; many references are missing in the many sentences; In scientific literature is not possible to have the parts of paper without references;

better describe the context, the reasons for this study and the need to implement the topic of online medical education;

- Material and Methods:

Please indicate which Statement of reporting was used to construct and conduct the study, e.g. in according to the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) guidelines (Eysenbach, 2004) and or STrengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) (von Elm et al., 2007);

Define whether questionnaire development and pre-testing questionnaire processes were used;

- Results:

insert a more descriptive part and greater analysis of the results in a reasoned and narrative way, not just describing the tables.

- in discussion:

Discussions should be reviewed in light of the overall improvement of the paper. Redundant sentences and prewritten information should be avoided. Focus on take-home messages and how that information impacts in the online healthcare education and how its implementations will be exploited in the near future.

introduce a section of strengths also;

- Tables:

could be improved in style reporting.

- Reference:

is very poor. I suggest to add the follow references in the introduction section:

Online teaching in physiotherapy education during COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: a retrospective case-control study on students' satisfaction and performance.

Rossettini G, Geri T, Turolla A, Viceconti A, Scumà C, Mirandola M, Dell'Isola A, Gianola S, Maselli F, Palese A.

BMC Med Educ. 2021 Aug 30;21(1):456. doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-02896-1.

Digital Entry-Level Education in Physiotherapy: a Commentary to Inform Post-COVID-19 Future Directions.

Rossettini G, Turolla A, Gudjonsdottir B, Kapreli E, Salchinger B, Verheyden G, Palese A, Dell'Isola A, de Caro JX.

Med Sci Educ. 2021 Nov 4;31(6):2071-2083. doi: 10.1007/s40670-021-01439-z. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Minor Edits:

- explode the acronym ITC

**********

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

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While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2023 Apr 27;18(4):e0284980. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284980.r002

Author response to Decision Letter 0


16 Mar 2023

Dear Editor,

The dataset has been uploaded under the supplementary file.

Dear Reviewers,

Thank you for the comment, input, and recommendations; they have helped to enrich the paper. Below are the responses to the comments.

Reviewer #1: 

This study describes the barriers to online learning during COVID-19 in Nigeria which is a gap in literature. However there are some changes that need to be made and the recommendations are as follows:

Response: Thank you for the observations and input. The corrections have been made, and the recommendations have been acted on.

Line 130,131 --Reword the sentence for clarity "The university was eventually re-opened by February 2021. The study occurred between September and October 2021, about seven months after the school was re-opened"

Response: Thank you. The statement has been rephrased for clarity; Lines 136-137

Please detail the questionnaire used in the study by referencing or adding it in the appendix

Response: The questionnaire used has been included as a supporting document. Thank you.

Table 1,2,3 - merge the frequency and percentage in one column

Response: Thank you for the input. The frequency and percentage have been merged into one column.

Table 2- merge the frequency and percentage in one column, change "i phone" to "iphone", change "Internet modern to internet modem. The email address, webinar and internet access question in the table without a Yes should be structured.

Response: Thank you for the input. The observed corrections in table 2 have been effected; lines 196

Reviewer #2:

I realize that authors have many journals to consider when they want to publish their work, so I appreciate your interest in PLOS ONE; I am very sorry not to be able to write in a more positive way. It is evident that you have put a great deal of effort into this project and I want to praise your efforts. Fortunately, the actual contribution from your study is clear and, the manuscript as currently written suggests that it might be suitable for sharing information about online medical education amidst COVID-19 pandemic topic, but the paper that you reported, needs few major edits. I should like to thank you for give me an opportunity to consider this work for publication.

It may be that the you would like to consider resubmitting it, in which case I hope that the comments from my review may help you to revise it before resubmitting it. These comments are given below.

Best Regards

- General review:

The paper is very interesting, but essentially needs to be rewritten to make it more linear scientifically and narrative structured

Response: Thank you for the observations and corrections. The paper has been revised to make it more scientific and structured.

- Introduction section:

is too poor; many references are missing in the many sentences; In scientific literature is not possible to have the parts of paper without references;

better describe the context, the reasons for this study and the need to implement the topic of online medical education;

Response: Thank you for the valuable input, which enriched the paper. The introduction has been revised accordingly, Lines 67-116

- Material and Methods:

Please indicate which Statement of reporting was used to construct and conduct the study, e.g. in according to the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) guidelines (Eysenbach, 2004) and or STrengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) (von Elm et al., 2007);

Response: Thank you for the input. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) was used to construct and report the study; lines 140-141

Define whether questionnaire development and pre-testing questionnaire processes were used;

Response: Yes, as indicated in the manuscript, the questionnaire was designed by the researchers after reviewing some literature and pretested among medical students in another university. The statement has been more clearly defined. Lines 147-150

- Results:

insert a more descriptive part and greater analysis of the results in a reasoned and narrative way, not just describing the tables.

Response: Thank you for the input. The results have been revised for a better presentation; lines 177-231

- in discussion:

Discussions should be reviewed in light of the overall improvement of the paper. Redundant sentences and prewritten information should be avoided. Focus on take-home messages and how that information impacts in the online healthcare education and how its implementations will be exploited in the near future.

Response: Thank you for your contribution. The discussion has been modified for better flow; lines 234-296

introduce a section of strengths also;

Response: The strengths of the study have been added; lines 286-288. Thank you

- Tables:

could be improved in style reporting.

Response: The tables have been modified and formatted. Thank you

- Reference:

is very poor. I suggest to add the follow references in the introduction section:

Online teaching in physiotherapy education during COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: a retrospective case-control study on students' satisfaction and performance.

Rossettini G, Geri T, Turolla A, Viceconti A, Scumà C, Mirandola M, Dell'Isola A, Gianola S, Maselli F, Palese A.

BMC Med Educ. 2021 Aug 30;21(1):456. doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-02896-1.

Digital Entry-Level Education in Physiotherapy: a Commentary to Inform Post-COVID-19 Future Directions.

Rossettini G, Turolla A, Gudjonsdottir B, Kapreli E, Salchinger B, Verheyden G, Palese A, Dell'Isola A, de Caro JX.

Med Sci Educ. 2021 Nov 4;31(6):2071-2083. doi: 10.1007/s40670-021-01439-z. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Response: Thank you for the input. The references have been reviewed, and necessary additions and corrections made; lines 332-402

Minor Edits:

- explode the acronym ITC

Response: The acronym ICT, has been corrected; line 230

Attachment

Submitted filename: Resonse to Reviewers.docx

Decision Letter 1

Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi

13 Apr 2023

Readiness, barriers, and attitude of students towards online medical education amidst COVID-19 pandemic: a study among medical students of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria

PONE-D-22-18325R1

Dear Dr. Irene, 

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Acceptance letter

Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi

17 Apr 2023

PONE-D-22-18325R1

Readiness, barriers, and attitude of students towards online medical education amidst COVID-19 pandemic: a study among medical students of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, Nigeria

Dear Dr. Eze:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Professor Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    S1 Dataset

    (SAV)

    S1 File

    (DOCX)

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Resonse to Reviewers.docx

    Data Availability Statement

    All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files.


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