Lessons learned from virtual education during COVID-۱۹: Experience of onlineexams in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences

Background: The epidemic of coronavirus (COVID-۱۹) had several consequences. One of thesectors that were severely affected by this crisis was education, which led to a change in the faceto-face approach to virtual. In this new mode, there are advantages such as access to educationalcontent from anywhere and anywhere, creating virtual discussions and groups, and holding virtualexams. But this change also posed challenges for educational institutions and universities. In thisregard, the use of experiences and the transfer of lessons learned during this period to promotevirtual education in universities of medical sciences is necessary. Accordingly, the purpose of thisstudy was to investigate the experiences of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (HUMS)regarding the challenges and practical strategies for online exams.Method: In this qualitative study with the purposive sampling method, semi-structured interviewswere conducted in ۲۰۲۱ with ۱۰ experts and faculty members involved in the virtual educationcenter of HUMS with more than ۳ years of work experience. Sampling was continued until datasaturation was reached. The obtained information was analyzed by content analysis and codingmethod including three steps (open, axial and selective).Results: Identified topics related to the benefits of e-exams included the ability to monitor questiondesign, facilitate test analysis and reporting, speed up calculation and announcement of test results,reduce computational error and easier handling of objections, easier access to the question bank,the positive impact of feedback, and reduced costs. The extracted challenges also include the maincategories ۱) pre-exam phase with sub-categories of exam tools, standard question design,infrastructure and exams implementation planning ۲) during the exams time with sub-categories ofexams security, immoral behaviors and fraud, infrastructure, users inadequate readiness, stress and strain, evaluation of the process of holding and support during the exams and ۳) post-exam phasewith the sub-categories of feedback management, open-questions analysis, and question banklimitations. Finally, some of the suggested practical strategies consist of developing clear inuniversityguidelines, developing practical standards in the virtual evaluation process,strengthening the monitoring team, auditing student behaviors and user activity tracking during thetest, access to appropriate bandwidth and Internet, creating virtual students groups to receiveexperiences and closely communicate with them as well as utilizing students' capacity for thesupport process and improving technical skills.Conclusion: It is hoped that by purposefully using the experiences from all universities along withusing more creativity and innovation and strengthening the structure and technologies, we will seethe growing development of standard virtual education and evaluation systems in the country.Also, after the end of the epidemic, to be used these types of methods as a complement to the inpersonprograms.

Keywords:

Virtual Education , Lessons Learned , Challenges , Strategies