Relationship Between Virtual Pharmacology Lecture, Attendance and Performance: Personal Experience With Veterinary Students of the University of BUEA, Southwest Cameroon

Abstract

Risk and cost of transportation and other unforeseen circumstances can hamper in-person pharmacology lectures with students. Hence, the study is aimed at identifying the advantages and disadvantages of pharmacology lectures via Zoom. A crossover design was adopted for the study that involved a total of 151 students of veterinary medicine, which comprised students of 400 level (52), 500 level (52) and 600 level (47) who participated six times in the study for one semester. All the lectures were delivered online. The levels and average numbers of online lecture participants were 400 level (22.3), 500 level (22.8) and 600 level (21.3) for Principles of Pharmacology, Applied Pharmacology, and Therapeutics, respectively. The findings showed no significant difference in online connection (p > 0.05) between 400, 500, and 600 level students. The numbers of students that passed Principles of Pharmacology (15), Applied Pharmacology (13) and Therapeutics (14) showed that the level of study and performance on the tests were connected with lecture attendance. Fourty-four percent attended the lectures, whereas 56% were absent. However, 27.8% of all the students passed the tests, whereas 72.2% failed the tests, respectively. The highest number of feedbacks (p < 0.05) was received from 500 level students (32), as compared to 400 level students (24) and 600 level students (17), respectively. The study has shown that online pharmacology lectures can serve as an alternative to in-person lectures, though associated with technical problems. However, many students showed much enthusiasm and praised the lecturer for his frantic effort in delivering the lectures, cordial lecturer/student relationship, and his objectivity toward class. The failure of power supply, problems of coordinating courses, zoom meeting network issues, insufficient laptops and phones, as well as the problem of connection with the course lecturer for the online lectures are disadvantages. Online lecturer/student relationship, objectivity of the lecturer, and lecturing methods can boost students' morale and interest in online lectures.