en علوم پزشکی Medical Sciences پژوهشي اصیل Orginal Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="line-height:2;"><b>Background & Objective: </b>The Epidemic Act invoked during COVID-19 pandemic restricted the use of traditional methods of face-to-face teaching and learning and entailed a drastic transition of teaching histology by the time-tested traditional mode in the laboratory to that on a virtual platform. Implementation of this virtual platform as the teaching methodology in histology which evolved as a result of the pandemic can now be continued as an important new teaching-learning modality even after COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted. Hence, this article explores the effect of the use of appropriate technology on students for teaching and learning.<br> <b>Materials & Methods:</b> The study undertaken at Department of Anatomy, Goa Medical College employed a non-interventional (cross-sectional) design. First year medical students participating in the online histology sessions were subjects in this study (n=144).&nbsp; The data collected comprised of perceptions regarding the new teaching-learning study tool which were recorded as a self-administered questionnaire imparted to them through a Google form. The responses were analyzed using chi-square test and p-values were obtained using SPSS.<br> <b>Results:</b> <span lang="EN-IN">Results indicated that virtual teaching provided the students with accessibility, flexibility, additional data and better retention of concepts. But the students ultimately were of the opinion that virtual teaching followed by laboratory teaching was the most preferred approach to learning. This preference of the integrated approach used in this study as compared to traditional classroom teaching was confirmed and found to be statistically significant as the p-value = 0.001< 0.05</span>.<br> <b>Conclusion:</b> While the study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the newly implemented integrated method as a preferred tool in current day teaching-learning versus the traditional teaching method, it also highlights the potential grey areas faced by the students using this virtual learning environment.</span></span></span></div> COVID-19, first year medical students, histology, questionnaire, virtual platform 72 81 http://edujournal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-12-2040-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Fatima Maria De Souza youhavemail2011@gmail.com 5300319475328460030288 5300319475328460030288 No Department of Anatomy, Goa Medical College, Bambolim, Goa–India, 403202. Nandini Milind Karapurkar dr_nandini1807@yahoo.com 5300319475328460030289 5300319475328460030289 No Department of Anatomy, Goa Medical College, Bambolim, Goa–India, 403202. Quadros Clarista Meleena qclarista@gmail.com 5300319475328460030290 5300319475328460030290 No Department of Anatomy, Goa Medical College, Bambolim, Goa–India, 403202. Jyothi Judith Alvares alvaresjv@gmail.com 5300319475328460030291 5300319475328460030291 Yes Goa University