Opportunities and challenges in virtual education of theoretical courses: Perspectives of medical students at Shahroud university of medical sciences

Background & Objective: Virtual education is considered a considerable transformation in educational systems, which depends on cultural creation, human sources, technological, educational, administrative, social, cultural, managerial, and economic infrastructures. This study investigated the opportunities and challenges in the virtual teaching of theoretical courses based on medical students' perspectives at Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran. Materials & Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 505 students at Shahroud University of Medical Sciences using simple random sampling. Two demographic questionnaires and e-learning challenges and opportunities were used to collect information. The data were entered into SPSS software (version 18) and analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: According to the results, most of the students were female (n=274; 54.3%). The mean±SD age of the participants was 21.78±0.13 years. Most of the students participating in the general medicine study were studying at a medical school, were non-native, and lived in dormitories. Moreover, virtual education challenges and opportunities showed a significant relationship with gender (P=0.001), age (P=0.001), place of residence (P=0.001), satisfaction with the field of study (P=0.001), history of Coronavirus disease (P=0.001), history of vaccination (P=0.001), the Internet problems (P=0.001), and access to virtual learning tools (P=0.001). Among the variables, the highest mean±SD score was cost and effectiveness (37.26±5). The overall mean±SD of the questionnaire was obtained at 101.60±11.78. Conclusion: Considering the relationship between opportunities and challenges of e-learning with several variables, we call for proper planning to improve the situation.