• Bhagabat Bhattarai, Sujaya Gupta, Sirjana Dahal, Aarzu Thapa, and Pooja Bhandari.
• Department of Periodontics and Oral Implantology, Kathmandu Medical College, Bhaktapur, Nepal.
• JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc. 2021 Mar 31; 59 (235): 234-238.

IntroductionThe COVID-19 global pandemic has affected all aspects of human life, with education no exception. Online lectures have been practiced in different academic institutions around the world. The objective was to know the perception towards online lectures by the undergraduate students of a medical college.MethodsThis descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the undergraduate students of dentistry, medicine, and nursing at Kathmandu Medical College via self-administered online questionnaire. Data were collected from November to December 2020 after ethical clearance from institutional review committee (Ref. no. 0311202002). Students who had not attended even one hour of online learning per week were excluded. Responses were collected using Google Forms which were analysed in Microsoft Excel. Descriptive statistics are presentedas means, standard deciations, frequencies, and percentages.ResultsOut of 318 valid questionnaires, 143 (44.97%) students agreed that online lectures were effective but 138 (43.4%) disagreed that online lectures were more useful than traditional lectures. One hundred and forty five (45.60%) found online classes difficult to concentrate and 175 (55.03%) agreed that they preferred a combination of traditional teaching and online tutorials. Only two (0.63%) students strongly agreed on excellent internet during classes and 104 (32.70%) agreed it caused economic burden. Mean age of participants was 20.75±1.538 years; 202 (63.52%) were females; online learning per week was 18.75±9.157 hours; and duration of online learning was 20.28±9.997 weeks.ConclusionsMost of the students had a positive attitude towards e-learning when compared to similar studies. Further multicentric studies with larger sample size would better demonstrate whether online education partly or fully can be effective adjunct to traditional face to face interaction.

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