Integrating the essence of online learning to facilitate research during COVID-19.

With the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease, people are advised to keep social distance. Schools are closed and people work from home. Some community research has had to be suspended to prevent the spread of the disease. Researchers have had to think of ways to deliver and continue their studies. With a large coverage of networks and the availability of electric devices, online delivery is a possible solution. In this article, the experience of conducting an online pain management programme is used to illustrate how the strategies and elements of online learning can be adopted to the conducting of research. Self-paced learning, learner control and self-directed learning are the approaches adopted in the online pain management programme and generated a positive learning experience. The difficulties encountered in the research process including the observation of the participants’ performance and reactions, are discussed, and the solutions devised by the research team are offered as an example.