The Quality of Online Education for Theoretical Courses of Audiology from the Perspective of Audiology Students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and Aim: The face-to-face education was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. In such situations, online education method was used. In this study, we aim to assess the quality of online education for theoretical courses of audiology from the perspective of audiology students at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted on 77 audiology students of the School of Rehabilitation at TUMS. Data collection were a demographic form and two quality and satisfaction assessment questionnaires. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS version 17. Results: There was a significant difference in all subscales of Shourcheh questionnaire among students with different educational stages (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference between age (except for social solidarity component) and gender (p>0.05) groups. The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed a statistically significant difference in the quality scores among students with different educational stages (p=0.033), but there was no significant difference between age (p=0.300) and gender (p=0.630) groups. Conclusion: The quality of online education for theoretical courses of audiology at TUMS is high from the perspective of PhD students, while it is low according to BSc and MSc students. © 2023 Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

A review of the challenges facing people with hearing loss during the COVID-19 outbreak: toward the understanding the helpful solutions

Background and Aim: COVID-19 is a pande-mic infectious disease caused by a novel coro-navirus has made dramatic changes in people's individual, family, and social lifestyle. Most cou-ntries have implemented some regulations inclu-ding wearing face masks, face shields, and gloves and physical, and social distance in public places to reduce the spread of the virus. However, these global recommendations may be associated with significant social, communication, and behavi-oral challenges for hearing-impaired people. This review explains the problems that hearing -impaired people may experience in the COVID-19 outbreak and also some helpful solutions that can be implemented by audiologists, healthcare professionals, and other members of the society that somehow interact with these people in such conditions that communication barriers increase. Recent Findings: Recent findings indicate that wearing face masks, physical, and social distan-cing, e-learning and virtual communications dur-ing COVID-19 pandemic have provided some problems for people with hearing loss. This can, in turn, have negative consequences including increased feelings of loneliness, isolation and also some limitations in access to educational materials and rehabilitation training of lock -downs of schools and rehabilitation centers or some challenges of online learning at home. Conclusion: People with hearing loss may expe-rience problems during COVID-19 pandemic. There are some strategies that can be imple-mented to partially solve some communicative and social problems in this group. The use of transparent face masks, compensatory strategies, as well as optimization of virtual, and telehealth, telerehabilitation and tele-education services can be helpful for hearing-impaired people during this pandemic era.