[01] Nur Ain Qamarinah binti Madrun, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [02] Ma Jin Man, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [03] Nor Ilizahani binti Ghali, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia. [04] Jeremy Lopez, Faculty of Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia.

E-learning platform has become one of the popular teaching methods and it is being utilized as an important component in medical schools. This study was conducted to evaluate if there is a role of E-learning in clinical skills among the undergraduate clinical year medical students in Melaka Manipal Medical College (MMMC). We wanted to know what is the factor affecting the learning outcome of the students through E-learning and the way to improve E-learning on learning clinical skills especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted for this study. 200 undergraduate clinical year medical students ranging from Year 4 to Year 5 from MMMC voluntarily participated our study. They participated in the online survey. Each participant received a short answer structured questionnaire to assess their sociodemographic details, IT ability, availability, accessibility and connectivity as well as experiences and attitudes towards the use of E-learning and their learning of clinical skills. Statistical tests like unpaired t-test and ANOVA were done using Epi info version 7.2. Majority of the students (93.6%) had access to computer in living accommodation 54.7% of the participants reported that they had not taken any E-learning course previously. Then, 83.3% of the participants did not prefer E-learning over conventional teaching methods. It is found that there is association between having access to computer in living accommodation and student’s perceived IT ability whereas there is association between whether the students had taken E-learning courses previously, their preference of E-learning over conventional teaching methods and their attitudes towards E-learning. Although students had good perceived IT ability, but majority of them still did not prefer E-learning over the traditional teaching methods. Thus, E-learning may not be the preferable choice to replace clinical skills among clinical year students in MMMC.

Medical Students, Clinical Skills, E-learning, Clinical Year, COVID-19

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