Preparation and validation of a new questionnaire to study faculty perception of online teaching - Use of Cronbach’s alpha and pilot.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educators to shift to virtual online classes. Teachers being major stakeholders in the medical teaching-learning process, it becomes important to understand their perception towards this new endeavour. It will make this transition beneficial to the learners. Objectives: To document the process of validation of a new questionnaire devised to study the perception of medical undergraduate teaching faculty towards online classes, using Cronbach’s alpha, and the subsequent pilot for the same. Results: At initial validation, Cronbach’s alpha was not acceptable (0.65) for the questionnaire. One item was scored low by two validators and was removed. Three items were given poor rating for lay out, clarity and feasibility and required editing. The Cronbach’s alpha after revision was 0.92 (acceptable). Pilot study was conducted. Based on the proportion of positive perception (36.4%) regarding ongoing online teaching programme, conducted on 11 teaching faculty with 10% absolute precision and 95% confidence, the minimum sample size for the main study was calculated to be 89. This was feasible from the point of view of total faculty strength. Conclusion: Research work involving a new tool, such as questionnaire, must utilize the statistical tool Cronbach’s alpha for validation, and pilot study for estimating the sample size and testing the content validity.