Introduction
Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infection is a life-threatening respiratory disease and first appeared in Wuhan, China, and spread worldwide in few moths and became a pandemic (1). All countries and communities are collaborating their effort to slow down the spread of infection. Undoubtedly, the pandemic’s most negative impact has been and continues to be on the healthcare system and healthcare workers. All elective treatments were delayed, and the healthcare system began to struggle with the pandemic. As an effect of this, of course, all doctors started to spend their energies on this pandemic.
As another aspect of the work, all kinds of collective organizations are postponed as well as in the medical field. However, even if practical training is interrupted, theoretical training is important for physicians to update their knowledge and, more importantly, to keep their motivation high in this challenging pandemic conditions. The web-based seminars (webinars) are the solutions to this issue. The face-to-face online meetings are provided with advantages such as talking with mentors and taking answers to your questions on the area with the personal touch and social activities. The webinars have several advantages, such as no requiring travel, reducing cost, and watching at home comfort using different mobile devices. The technological advantages started to shifted education into digital fields.
Our association (Society of Urological Surgery) developed an application called Uropedia in 2017 (Figure 1). Uropedia is an online library for urologists compatible with the mobile ecosystem, including mobile phones, tablets, and Android TV. We share surgical techniques, videos of seminars, annual meetings, and a summary of changes on guidelines such as Covid-19 recommendations in this application. There is also a textbook prepared by our association, through which we can access theoretical information through this app.
During the pandemic, the webinars are increased all over the world. They are reduced costs and more comfortable, but the satisfaction of participants is still debatable. The literature recently focuses on webinars. Nevertheless, no published study has examined participatory behavior, and we even did not yet know the efficacy of webinars.
In this study, we aimed to evaluate audiences’ behaviors before and after COVID-19.