Investigating the advantages and disadvantages of electronic logbooks for education goals promotion in medical sciences students: A systematic review

Abstract

Background and AimsElectronic logbook (E‐Logbook) is one of the practical software in medical science that serves as an auxiliary tool for comprehensive education, formative evaluation, and student learning documentation in clinical education. E‐logbooks are available to people on the Internet without any time or place restrictions. Experts' familiarity with e‐logbooks and their advantages and disadvantages can be effective in their better design so professors and students can use their potential benefits. Therefore, this study examines the advantages and disadvantages of an e‐logbook.MethodsThis systematic review was conducted until June 13, 2022, by searching relevant keywords such as logbook, e‐logbook, and medical students in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Data were extracted using the data extraction form. The contents of the studies were analyzed based on the study's aim. The results of the analyses were presented in the form of descriptive statistics (tables and figures).ResultsOut of 365 retrieved studies, 13 were selected to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of e‐logbooks. Most studies were conducted in Pakistan (n = 4) and focused on medical students with different specialties (n = 10). The advantages and disadvantages of e‐logbooks were classified into nine and four categories, respectively. Most advantages of e‐logbooks were related to monitoring and evaluating the performance of students and instructors (n = 11). Their most disadvantages were associated with hardware and software (n = 8).ConclusionAccording to the results, e‐logbooks can improve clinical education, provide feedback to people, control the achievement of educational goals, and increase professor−student interaction. Hence, it is recommended to address their disadvantages and barriers to improve the quality of students' performance.