The View Point of Faculty Member on The Virtual Education System and the application in the Covid-19 pandemic in Tehran Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences

Due to critical situation of Covid-19 Pandemic, a quick establishment of a virtual educational system was necessary. Virtual education is an active and intelligent educational system, in which one of the used tools is the Internet. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the views of professors of Tehran Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences about the virtual educational system and its application during Covid-19 pandemic.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted by professors of Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. In this study, a researcher-made questionnaire with face validity and qualitative content validity approved by the group of experts with quantitative content validity of Content Validity Ratio = 0.71, Content Validity Index = 0.91 and reliability of 0.84 and Cronbach's alpha was used. Inclusion criteria were teaching at the Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences in Tehran and having a personal page in the system. Exclusion criteria were incomplete completion of the questionnaire. Data evaluation was performed with SPSS 24.

A total of 348 professors entered the virtual system. Most of these professors were women (63.6%) with a doctorate degree and assistant professorship(47.7%). The results showed that in all cases, professors had a positive view toward the features of the virtual system. While 36% believed that using the virtual educational system would reduce the interaction. Most professors agreed on the infrastructure and implementation process of e-learning.

The professors of Tehran Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences had a positive opinion about the virtual educational system and its use in the university.