The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge impact towards the teaching and learning activities in medical schools. Due to the outbreak, the curricular activities were shifted to a mainly digitised version of learning format. The purpose of this paper is to present the study design and methodology of a population-based survey on the impact of COVID-19 among medical students. The survey aims to investigate the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on the COVID-19 pandemic, the online learning readiness and psychological status among medical students in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). A universal sampling method will be used that involve 475 medical students from Year 1 to Year 6 in USIM. The data collection will be conducted through an online survey. The questionnaire consists of three components: the study of KAP on COVID-19, the online learning readiness and psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Both of the KAP and online learning readiness questionnaire will be adopted, adapted and validated from previous research and will be based on a local study. As for the depression, anxiety and stress, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) questionnaire will be used. Duration of data collection is expected to be one month, and findings are expected to be ready by three months from the last data collection date. The exposure variables include sociodemographic factors and years of study, while the outcomes are the KAP scores, online learning readiness level, and DASS scores. Relationships between the outcomes and associated factors will be analysed once data collection is completed.

Preventing the spread of COVID-19 is crucial in flattening the COVID-19 infection curve. General population control measures should emphasise on understanding the knowledge about the disease and importance of following regulations related to restriction on movement. The aim of this pilot study was to develop a valid, reliable and practical instrument on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Measures for Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in Malaysia. The instrument was developed based on a Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) conceptual framework. The instrument in the form of a questionnaire was distributed online to a sample of 40 adults. The initial questionnaires contained 16, 17 and 14 questions on knowledge, attitude and practices domains, respectively. The content validity was assessed by the experts. The reliability of the instrument was measured using internal consistency reliability, which was measured using alpha coefficient reliability of Cronbach Alpha. The analysis showed that the total Cronbach Alpha value for knowledge, attitude and practice were 0.93, 0.89 and 0.87 respectively. After one item dropped from the attitude domain, the findings of this pilot study show that the instrument is valid and reliable to be used in a further larger study. This study demonstrated that the three scales of knowledge, attitude and practice were reliable and valid for assessing the prevention of spread of COVID-19 in Malaysia, although further analysis are needed to improve especially on the knowledge scale due to the low level of difficulty.