Drawbacks of remote teaching and learning assessment of medical and health science students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Future perspectives and recommendations

ABSTRACT

Almost all universities or colleges have diverted to online learning and teaching modalities due to COVID-19 pandemic. Adaptation of remote learning might not be equally benefiicial for all students. We have provided an opinion about how remote learning might become an opportunity for dishonest students and future perspectives for such students. Medical students, who do not take their studies seriously might take this remote learning as an opportunity and use the short cuts to pass their exams because they can easily cheat online in the assignments and exams. Therefore, teaching institutions should develop some strategies to equally assess medical and health sciences students to ensure transparency, justice, and credibility. Conducting oral exams along with the written exams, encouraging students to participate online, asking students to turn on their videos if feasible, and developing a mechanism where these students can explain their work to the teacher can help to overcome challenges.