Abstract:
The continuation of online teaching-learning activities that emerged as a result of COVID-19 pandemic seems to be affected by the perceptions of the stakeholders. This study was aimed to assess the perception of the Physilogy hybrid viva voce examination (HVVE) which is a main component of the second MBBS examination for medical students. Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics review committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna. The hybrid viva panel consisted of an examiner joining via the Zoom application and an examiner attending in person. Students had previous experience with the physical viva examination for two other subjects. The consented students filled out an anonymous questionnaire soon after the HVVE. Of the 104 participants, 65.4% (68) were female and 34.6 % ( 36 ) were male students. Nine (8.7%) had prior online viva experiences. 14.4% of the students reported getting prepared for the HVVE before the examination. 49.1% of the students reported receiving encouraging input from their peers on HVVE. 77.9% of the students believed that sufficient information was provided before the HVVE. Overall HVVE experience was rated as satisfactory /highly satisfactory by 49.0% of the students. Students who believed that they had received sufficient information( p=0.000) and those who received encouraging inputs from peers ( p=0.004) were more likely to rate the overall HVVE experience as satisfactory /highly satisfactory. 65.4% of the students preferred HVVE over physical viva examinations. A higher proportion of students who had received encouraging inputs from peers preferred HVVE over physical viva examinations than that other students (p=0.004). Moreoever, the encouraging inputs from the peers were a predictor of willingness to participate in HVVE in the future peers (OR [95% CI]: .357 [.131- .976] p=.045). 76.9% of the students mentioned that they would encourage colleagues to participate in HVVE. Therefore, sufficient information before the examination and encouraging peer inputs seem to enhance students' positive perceptions towards HVVE.
