IS PANDEMIC AFFECTING STUDENTS ? : A STUDY ON LEARNING INTEREST AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT ON MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of learning interest on academic achievement before and during pandemic.

The cross-sectional study was conducted on medical students of Medical and Health Sciences Faculty of Muhammadiyah Makassar University. Learning interest assessed by questionnaires that filled out by  70 students by purposive sampling technique. Data about academic achievement on previous and current semester, were obtained from academic department. Data were analysed using Chi-Square Test to observe the correlation between the variables.

The result shows that 93,6% of respondents in low learning interest group have experienced decrease in study achievement, while other 6,4% has increased their achievement between last and current semester. Among respondents that have high interest in learning, 95,6% of them undergo increased academic achievement, whereas only 4,4% that have decreasing in their achievement. From the analysis test, with p-value = 0.000, this study shows a significant correlation between study interest on academic achievement before and during pandemic on medical students of Medical and Health Science Faculty of Muhammadiyah Makassar University.

The primary limitation of these results is numbers of respondents. Further study should be carried out on larger respondents from different year of medical school.

The study can serve toward education especially learning process in medical school