Students' Experiences on Online Education Opportunities during the COVID-19 Outbreak

The sudden epidemic of Corona led to the suspension of face-to-face medical education. The educational system tried to compensate for the shortcomings by using distance and electronic education. This study aimed to describe the opportunities of virtual education in the pandemic from the point of view of general medical students.

The current research is a qualitative study with a conventional content analysis approach. The participants consisted of 14 students who had the experience of virtual education during the Corona era. Purposive sampling method was used to select the interviewees. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and with the help of MaxQDA software. Lincoln and Goba criteria were used to ensure the accuracy of the data.

Based on data analysis, three main categories include "infrastructural opportunities", "educational opportunities" and "individual opportunities" along with 9 subcategories "breaking the traditional classroom; link with technology". "The development of virtual education systems", "New experience of education management", "Emergence of new style of tests", "Education free from time and place; academic flexibility", "Educational self-management representation", "Time saving; optimal time management”, "more mental-psychological satisfaction; more satisfaction with life" and "fuller pocket, less financial worries" were obtained as the main opportunities of virtual education.

Virtual education had an effect on the quality of education and life of students. Therefore, the expression of opportunities can be effective and helpful for future policies and lead to the creation of new ideas of distance education in the future. In this regard, especially academic flexibility and education free from time and place facilitates and accelerates the exploitation of national and international opportunities.