Challenges and opportunities of virtual education: A look at the lived experience of faculty members and students of Dezful University of Medical Sciences in the corona pandemic

Introduction: Nowadays applying virtual education has become a main necessity during the Corona pandemic. For this reason, a large part of the medical community, especially medical universities, is using virtual education to continue their educational process during this crisis. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to identify the challenges and opportunities of virtual education based on the lived experience of faculty members and students of Dezful University of Medical Sciences during the Corona pandemic. Methods: The study was conducted using a qualitative approach by descriptive phenomenology. So, using the purposive sampling method by criterion method, 20 students and 15 faculty members of Dezful University of Medical Sciences were selected by considering the saturation of the findings. The tool used for data collection was a semi-structured interview. To analyze the interviews, the Colaizzi seven-step content analysis method was used, and to evaluate the credibility of the findings, two methods by member checking and peer checking were used. Results: The analysis of the interviews showed that from the perspective of students and faculty members participating in the study, virtual education challenges were classified into three main categories; technical challenges, communication challenges, and content challenges. As well, from the perspective of two groups, the virtual education opportunities were classified into one main category including facilitation in education. Conclusion: Holding to better virtual education requires the serious attention of managers and directors of the Dezful University of Medical Sciences to address the challenges of virtual education and provide the needed technology infrastructure