COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease. It spreads through human to human contacts. Within no time it has spreaded across the globe and leads to mortality and morbidity in an alarming speed. Control measures are taken such as frequent hand hygiene, use of mask, social distancing etc. to minimise the spread. All kind of public gathering prohibited. Shutdown enforced thus people are forced to work from home online. One of the most observed situations during COVID-19 pandemic is online education that also put into effect rapidly. 

India is a country with poor internet accessibility in most of the places, poor supply of electricity (frequent power cut) and many people can’t afford a digital device with internet access. 

Before this pandemic in some of the educational institutions only, very few teachers only used to use technology in the form of PPT, that too with their own devices and own interest. Both teachers and students were digital immigrants, trying to learn through trial and error. Thus sudden enforcement of online classes put them into lots of challenges. 

Studies conducted by Sarı and Nayır and Deshmukh reported about the panic experience of the students and teachers in using online platforms since, they were unprepared for such abrupt change in teaching method. Teachers and students could not demonstrate the expected level of technology usage [1].

Furthermore, the educational programmes such as nursing which needs lots of hands-on practices to develop proper skills and competencies in performing patient care procedures forced to practice through dry lab.

The current study conducted to assess the nursing students’ attitude towards virtual classes conducted during the COVID pandemic.

A quantitative cross sectional study was conducted among nursing students from selected nursing institutions in Jharkhand, India. Data collected during 1^st of September to 30^th of September 2021. 

The dependent variable was attitude and virtual classes were independent variable. 

Nursing students are the target population. A total of 351 nursing students had participated in the study. 

A pre validated structured survey questionnaire was constructed in Google forms and made accessible through link for self-administration. Convenient snowball nonprobability sampling technique was used via instant messaging and social media and the connections were requested to share as much as they can within their connections and also request the same to their connections.

The questionnaire has three parts socio-demographic profile, technology use competency and attitude towards virtual classes.

The socio-demographic characteristics comprise of 6 items such as, gender, course perusing, study year, availability of digital devices with internet access, availability of easy internet access and experience of virtual session before COVID.

To assess the technology use competency 7 items were included seeking response with either yes or, no such as, confidence in using computers, learn to usecomputer and online activities by trial and error,

knowledge of shortcuts, and more efficient ways to use computer, solving problem with any function of the computer by self,knowledge of downloading audios/videos/documents, knowledge of preparing content in word and PDF file and know sending documents/images/videos to others online. 

To assess the attitude of nursing students towards virtual classes 8 items developed such as, online activities improves information communication and technology skills, web assisted activities are more interesting than the paper assisted activities, web platform is easy to use, prefer to prepare most of study content from internet than a text book, feel happy to collect educational material from internet, easy to share educational material online quickly, virtual classes improve my performance and virtual classes improve my interactions with friends and the teachers. Each answer is scored on a Likert scale from 0 to 4 in a way that, score 0 = strongly disagree, 1 = disagree, 2 = undecided, 3 = agree and 4 = strongly agree. The final score was obtained by summing the scores of all questions. The higher score represents a positive attitude towards virtual classes. The total score between 0-8 represents a negative attitude, 9-16 not sure, and 17-32 represents positive attitude. The scale showed very good internal consistency and high positive correlation with test - retests value 0.97 in the present study.

An informed consent briefly explaining the objective of the study was provided at the beginning of the questionnaire. Nursing students those who responded to the survey were assumed to have consented to participate in the study. Personal details, and potential identifiers of nursing students were not collected to maintain the confidentiality. 

The collected data were analysed using the SPSS-26. Descriptive analysis such as frequencies, and percentages were used and chi-square tests used to determine the association between attitude and technology use competency. The statistical significance level was set at p ≤0.05.

Table-1 showing 79% nursing students have positive attitude towards virtual classes.

Table 1: Attitude of Nursing Students towards Virtual Classes N = 351

Table 2 showing female nursing students have more positive attitude towards virtual class than male nursing students. All (100%) students have smart phones and they have attended their classes through that. Only 9% students have both smart phone and laptop. Twenty percent students don’t have good internet access and internet accessibility had significant association with attitude towards virtual class. Fifty-two percent students had never experienced any online session before COVID.

Table 2: Association of Attitude towards Virtual Classes and Demographic Profile N = 351 

Table 3 showing 93% nursing students know downloading audios/videos/documents and sending documents/images/videos to others online, 87% know preparing content in word and PDF file, 71% feel confident in using computer, 68% learn to use computer and online activities by trial and error, 54% know shortcuts, and more efficient ways to use computer and 45%       solve problems with any function of the computer by self. Confidence in using computer and unable to solve problems related to functions of computer have significant association with attitude towards virtual learning.

Table 3: Assessment of Technology Use Competency N = 351

Seventy-nine percent nursing students have positive attitude towards virtual classes. This finding has its support from the study conducted by Nasser M. Sabah, Rhema, A., & Miliszewska, Qaisar Abbas, Jasuli, Kiran Odit-Dookhan, L Vitoria, Khan, M.A.; Vivek; Nabi, M.K.; Khojah, M.; Tahir [2-10].

Though all the students have smart phones and they have attended their classes through that. Similar findings reported by the study conducted by Muthuprasad T, Aiswarya S, Aditya K.S, Girish K. Jha [11].

Again 20% students don’t have a good internet access must have hampered their studies is also a matter of concern. Fifty-two percent students had never experienced any online session before COVID, this indicates how much challenges they have faced. Internet access is significantly associated with attitude of nursing students towards virtual classes. 

Gender wise there is no significant difference found in attitude towards virtual learning. This aligns with the findings reported by Hussein.

Table showing 93% nursing students know downloading audios/videos/documents and sending documents/images/videos to others online, 87% know preparing content in word and PDF file, 71% feel confident in using computer, 68% learn to use computer and online activities by trial and error, 54% know shortcuts, and more efficient ways to use computer and 45%               solve problems with any function of the computer by self. However, the nursing student population, those lacking these competencies must have suffered is a big matter of concern.

Confidence in using computer and unable to solve problems related to functions of computer have significant association with attitude towards virtual learning. This aligns with the findings reported by Rhema, A., and Miliszewska as they found association between students’ positive attitudes towards ICT and confident in using computers [3].

The study has self-response bias. Collecting data through online is a potential selection bias.

E-platform was a great measure during the pandemic. Nursing students had a positive attitude towards virtual classes even though, the abrupt switching up of digital platform, from traditional platform brought with various challenges because of unpreparedness. This draws attention towards the importance of digital citizenship. 

List of Abbreviations

Not applicable

Declarations

Competing interests: No competing interests.

Funding

Non

Authors' contributions: Single author 

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the study participants and all those who helped in data collection

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