Abstract
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the world in 2020. Every country adopted quarantine measures to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus infection. These measures resulted in dramatic changes in the daily lives of most people. In the academic world, students faced a shift from the traditional classroom-based teaching to virtual distance learning platforms. This shift in nursing education posed challenges both to the instructors and students as they were not fully prepared for this transition. Objective The study assessed the nursing students’ satisfaction with the virtual learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic in selected nursing colleges in India. Methods The study was conducted in four nursing colleges in India. A total of 1,166 Diploma, Post Basic BSc (N), BSN, and MSN nursing students participated in the study. Ethical approval was obtained from all the nursing colleges included in the study. The Google Forms satisfaction survey included student, teacher, course, technology, environmental, and practical dimensions. Results The response rate was 86.31% (n = 1,166). The overall satisfaction with virtual theory and practical classes has a mean and SD score of 67.14 + 11 and 16.21 + 3.46, respectively. The results showed that overall 51% of the students had good satisfaction with virtual theory classes while 48% had moderate satisfaction. In terms of overall satisfaction with virtual practical classes, approximately 39% had good satisfaction, 58% had moderate satisfaction and nearly 3% had poor satisfaction. In addition, the students expressed that they had good satisfaction with Teacher dimension (64.3%), Student dimension (63%), and Course dimension (57.2%). On the contrary, they expressed poor satisfaction in the Technical dimension (11.3%) and Environmental dimension (5.6%). The results showed that the courses, the place of attending class, and health issues were significantly associated with the student's level of satisfaction with virtual learning. Conclusion Although the majority of the students rated their satisfaction level as being “good” in virtual theory classes and “moderate” in virtual practical learning, most of them were dissatisfied with the Technical and Environmental dimensions of virtual learning. This results calls for blended learning strategies to be designed to enhance better learning outcomes and, to ensure deepened level of satisfaction with virtual learning activities.