Nursing Students Perception Regarding Online Classes During 2nd COVID-19 Wave in India

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused the closing of classrooms all over the world and forced 1.5 billion students and 63 million educators to suddenly modify their face-to-face academic practices, wherever possible. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the perception of nursing students towards online classes during 2^nd wave of COVID-19. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional web based research design was used to conduct this study. Snowball sampling method was used to fill the form. The target population was nursing students. Total 740 participants were recruited for this study. Likert scale to measure perception was used to assess perception regarding online classes. Data was collected from 21 April to 30^th May. Results: 76.2% of participants use the cellular data to get connected to the online classes. More than half of the participants (53.8%) have negative perception regarding online classes. One third of the participants were agreed to online learning is easy to manage study time effectively. 36.2% were disagreed to learning is same in class and at home on the internet. 39.5% disagreed to online learning is better than traditional learning. A statistical significant association of level of perception was found with education of nursing student, education of mother, monthly family income, type of gadget used for attending online classes and access to sound or static internet at p <0.05. Discussion: Nursing students believes face to face learning is better than the online learning. However students promoted online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. They felt that learning should be continued during the pandemic as well.