Virtual Education and Medical Students’ Study Habits During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Differences and Commonalities

Background: Considering the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing the use of virtual education potentialities to continue the education path in universities, educationalists examine different dimensions that influence the process of promoting virtual education. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the study habits of the students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZAUMS) during virtual education experience in terms of their gender, faculties, study field, grade point averages (GPAs), native/non-native, academic semester, duration, and interest in virtual education in 2021. Methods: It was a descriptive-analytical, cross-sectional study in which 221 male (43.93%) and 282 female students (56.07%) participated. The data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS 20 software. Results: The independent t-test showed no statistically significant difference in students’ study habits regarding gender (P = 0.151). The ANOVA results also confirmed that there were not any significant differences in students' study habits concerning their faculties (P = 0.411) and study field (P = 0.687). Furthermore, there were significant differences in the scores of participants' study habits regarding lower/higher academic semesters (P = 0.049), virtual education duration (P = 0.025), GPAs (P = 0.039). and interest in virtual education (P = 0.005). However, the independent t-test indicated no significant difference in study habits regarding being native or non-native (in this article, by being native, we mean the students who live and grow up in Zahedan, and by non-native, we mean all other students who have come from other cities around the country, Iran, to fulfill their studies at ZAUMS) (P = 0.61). Conclusions: Considering the importance of study habits on academic performance and, ultimately, the efficiency of students in the future, it is suggested to conduct training courses on practicing the correct study methods and habits to improve the status quo.