Exploration of faculty members’ perceptions about virtual education challenges in medical sciences: a qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: Virtual education is among the important factorsimproving the learning of medical students. This study aimed toexplain the perceptions of faculty members towards the challengesof virtual education. Methods: The present study was carried out with a qualitativeapproach and using a conventional content analysis method.The participants included 28 faculty members working inMedical universities in Iran who were purposefully recruited andinterviewed face to face practicing semi-structured interviews.All interviews were conducted and reviewed; then, the resultswere extracted. For this purpose, semantic similarities werefirst measured and subcategories identified. Subsequently, goingthrough the re-review, we grouped the associated subcategoriesinto wider categories. Results: From the analysis of the participants' narratives, twowide categories including organizational barriers and legalethicalchallenges were obtained. The organizational barriersincluded two subcategories of defective organizational cultureand disproportionate infrastructure. The legal-ethical challengesalso included subcategories of neglecting intellectual propertyrights and ignoring ethical actual instances in the field of virtualeducation. Conclusion: Understanding the challenges to which virtualeducation implementation is faced leads to their eliminationwhich, in turn, develops the application of e-learning in the fieldof medical sciences. These challenges can be addressed throughputting the emphasis on promoting the organizational cultureof medical universities, improving the infrastructures of virtualeducation, and considering the legal and ethical concepts specificto virtual education.