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One of the most important consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic was the forced transition to total distance learning at all levels of education. The rate of spread of the disease and the number of deaths left no choice (Marinoni et al., 2020; Tandon, 2020). Global changes have led to the fact that distance learning has become in demand and has begun to develop at a tremendous rate. The main problems that arose in this transition had to be solved: the search for learning services and applications for online communication. In the context of the pandemic, it was necessary to look for new ways of effective and safe learning, which would preserve the effectiveness of the educational process and help not to interrupt it (Koreneva et al., 2020).
The radical introduction of distance learning forms has made quite significant adjustments to the functioning of university educational and administrative structures. For example, medical faculties in Indonesia, according to researchers’ findings, were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, of which the medical faculty of Universitas Kristen Indonesia is the most affected. It is pointed out that the administration of the faculty had to fundamentally change the paradigm of the teaching and management staff within 1–3 weeks to change from the former lecture in class to a modified online lecture (Daroedono et al., 2020).
Distance learning forms require a more conscious attitude of students to the learning process, personal motivation, and, for the most part, independent completion of assignments. Self-education is about the transition from the classical form to distance learning. Many people find it difficult to adapt to the digitalization of lessons and meetings between students and teachers; all have different attitudes to innovative technologies, the quality of knowledge obtained in a new way, and the preservation of the moral aspects of teaching processes. All these problems have had a strong impact on changing the modern curriculum and have completely changed it (Soldatova, 2018). For students at medical universities, online classes were the only form of education within the limits of the lockdown (Osipova & Goreva, 2014; Potomkova et al., 2006; Serditova & Belotserkovsky, 2020). At the same time, in the field of medicine, practical knowledge in the subject area is decisive, and clinical excellence cannot be replaced by other forms of experience (Maksimenko et al., 2019).
Modern computer and network technologies have expanded the horizons and tools of education. However, in the field of medicine, the need for practical and personal clinical experience remains irreplaceable. The question of the possibilities and limits of acceptability of online education in medicine remains open (Mian & Khan, 2020; Shearer et al., 2020). Physicians can gain most of their knowledge from textbooks or technical visualization, but practice remains extremely limited (Venkatesh et al., 2020; Zimina et al., 2019). It is necessary to find out how effective such an approach is when applied to clinical specialties?
Student interest in learning has been significantly reduced because no personal contact with teachers was promoted. Medical education has faced different issues due to the need for students to communicate with teachers. Students experience confusion studying new subjects and applying knowledge in practice without teacher support. For medical students, it is difficult to do specific tasks. Many teachers reported attention problems in students in distance learning and poor concentration (Adnan & Anwar, 2020). In some cases, students reported overload and stress. Medical teachers give students complex tasks, but students do not have enough time to study the material and improve the clinical skills learned in the classroom (Sundarasen et al., 2020).