Description of Virtual Education Research in Medical Universities in Iran: Scoping Review

Considering the importance and necessity of virtual education, this study aims to outline the current status of virtual education studies in Iran's universities of medical sciences from the frame of approved scientific research journals.

The present study is based on the scoping method and by searching the keywords "virtual education", "electronic education", "electronic learning", "web education", "online education", and "distance education". It was done in the information bank of the country's publications (Mag Iran). All the articles available until September 2019 resulting from the research in the medical sciences universities of the country were selected and analyzed based on the studied variables (university of research location, journal, year of publication, statistical population, type of study, instrument, topic, and sampling). 

After removing duplicate and unrelated articles, 115 articles were included in the study. In terms of location, Tehran University (19.1 percent); In terms of the statistical population, nursing students (24.3%); In terms of subject, comparison of traditional and virtual education (27%); and theory courses (77.8%) were studied the most. Most of the research conducted between 2015 to 2018 (51.3%) was conducted, descriptive method (34.8%) was the most used type of study, questionnaire was the most used tool (49.6%) and randomness (39.1%) was the most used sampling method.

Dealing with virtual education has found a special place in universities and it intensified during the corona pandemic. Determining the distribution of research subjects and identifying shortcomings to achieve the effectiveness and adequacy of studies is one of the results of this study. It is recommended to evaluate the student; the type of tools needed and available to the student; Family, cultural, social, and economic dimensions effective in virtual education, especially in second and third-type universities of medical sciences, should be paid more attention in future studies.