Hira Butt, Nauman Rauf Khan, Ameer Iqbal Iqbal, Khadija Ahmad Pakistan, Shahid Iqbal, Fiza Tahir.
Factors Influencing the Participation and Engagement of Dental Students in E-Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic.
J Gandhara Med Dent Sci Jan ;8(2):24-30.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the factors that influences the participation and engagement of dental students in online classes. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a pre-validated questionnaire with 45 barriers items used. The Cronbach Alpha value after removing certain items in our study was calculated to be 0.934, which resulted in 35 barrier items. Recorded data were coded and entered using SPSS version 23.0. Nominal data were presented as frequency and percentage, whereas all numerical data was entered as mean and standard deviation. Factor analysis on questions pertaining to barriers to e-learning was done. RESULTS: The underlying construct of the data was identified using principal component factor analysis. The type of rotation used was Varimax. The value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure for sampling adequacy (MSA) was 0.880. The criteria used for identifying factors were the latent root criteria. A total of six factors were identified. The overall variance explained by these factors was 61.9%. The barriers ranked the highest were those pertaining to motivational problems and time interruptions (2.8667+-0.88524). The barriers that were ranked the lowest were those pertaining to instructors and personal problems (2.3894+-0.81059). CONCLUSION: The biggest barrier was found to be motivational problems in attending online classes. The second-highest ranked barrier was social problems. The third barrier included a lack of support services. Technical barriers were ranked fourth. The barrier that was ranked fifth was a lack of pre-requisite skills. The barriers that were reported to be the least were problems pertaining to the instructor and personal problems.

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