ABSTRACT
Background & Objectives: Academic education has been a challenge for medical schools during the SARS-COV2 pandemic. The E-Learning has been widely used in order to mitigate the damage caused by the impossibility of in-class teaching in schools and universities. The present study aims to assess the impact on student's learnship as well as the level of satisfaction amongst students on the online teaching of theoretical anesthesiology as an alternative method to classroom teaching in times of pandemic. Material & Methods: This single-center observational study was approved by the Institutional Review Board. The subjects were divided into eight modules with two virtual meetings each. Tests related to the topics covered were prepared in the GoogleForms tool and applied before and after the lectures given through the Microsoft Teams platform. The students' levels of expectation and satisfaction regarding the online course were evaluated using online forms. Results: The study included 61 medical students, from the fourth to the sixth year, of which 36 answered all tests, with a total of 812 questionnaires completed. A significant increase in the number of correct answers was observed in all modules (FIGURE 1);the raise in the overall average was 41,37% (3,94vs5,57;CI95%;p<0,001). The difference between the students' levels of expectation and satisfaction in each item was analysed individually (FIGURE 2) and, in general, the course exceeded the student's expectations (6,06vs6,25;CI95%;p<0,001). Conclusion: E-Learning is an effective method for the theoretical teaching of anesthesiology and can be considered a valuable tool in medical school education. The decrease in the number of questionnaires answered throughout the course could be explained by the return of university activities. The improvement in the grades and in the level of satisfaction regarding the expectation shows the effectiveness and the good acceptance of the online methodology by the students.