Iranian Students’ Satisfaction with Virtual Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

Background: With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and using virtual education in universities, faculty members and students faced a serious challenge in education. This study aimed to investigate Iranian students’ satisfaction with virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic.Materials and Methods: In this systematic review, a search of online databases (Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, SID, CIVILICA, and Google Scholar search engine) was conducted for relevant studies up to December 2022. The quality of the information was evaluated using the STROBE and COREQ tools.Results: Eleven related studies were selected. The students’ satisfaction with virtual education ranged from 29.6% to 86.5%. Students indicated the strengths of virtual education as the elimination of travel costs, the reduction of the stress of presentation, saving time, more freedom, getting out of the framework, the possibility of recording the class and using it at another time, and preventing the COVID-19 spread. The primary weaknesses of virtual education were the lack of feedback and face-to-face interaction, the low quality of teaching by educators, the poor quality of educational content, the lack of participation of learners in teaching, the disruption of the e-learning websites, low Internet speed, and the cost of the Internet. The findings showed that the cultural and personality differences of students were effective in determining the strengths and weaknesses of virtual education (p<0.05).Conclusion: Satisfaction with the quality of virtual education varied from 29.6 to 85.5%. Despite problems in virtual education, universities should use the benefits of this approach and try to resolve the challenges expressed by students to achieve maximum satisfaction.

Iranian Students’ Satisfaction with Virtual Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review Keywords:

COVID-19 , Iran , Satisfaction , Students , Virtual Education