Enseñanza y aprendizaje virtual en investigación universitaria en el Perú durante la pandemia del COVID-19

Objective: To describe the perception of the online teaching and learning process of the Research course among obstetrics students at a Peruvian university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional design was used. Data were collected through an online survey administered to 73 eighth-term obstetrics students who completed the Research course between October 2020 and January 2021, conducted entirely online. A questionnaire, validated by expert panel’s review (Aiken’s V: 0.95) and demonstrating high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.93), gathered data on tutoring, course performance, teaching strategies, learning outcomes and student satisfaction. Results: A total of 95.89 % of the students were female and 49.31 % reported that they simultaneously studied and worked while completing the course. Regarding their research experience, only 6.85 % had contributed to a scientific publication and 93.15 % had not taken a course on statistical softwares. In relation to tutoring, most students expressed agreement with the tutor’s willingness to address their questions and concerns (76.71 %) and empathy (76.72 %), though fewer agreed with the tutor’s statistical expertise (57.53 %). As for the course performance, 57.53 % disagreed with the number of allocated hours. Concerning the teaching strategies, the students had a positive perception of virtual tools such as Moodle and Google Meet but were less satisfied with the course workload. The students reported improvements in their knowledge of thesis projects, dissertations and scientific publications, and over 60 % expressed satisfaction with both the course and tutoring. Conclusions: Obstetrics students agreed with the online teaching and learning approach used in research during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they suggested improvements in the tutor’s statistical expertise, the number of hours assigned to the course and the course workload.