IT-based activity in physiology education: an experience from a developing country

Abstract

Information technology (IT)-based components are included as active learning activities in medical curricula that have been shown to be more effective than most passive learning activities. In developing countries, these activities are not popular compared with developed countries. In this study, an IT-based assignment was carried out in physiology for undergraduates in Sri Lanka. We assessed certain basic IT capabilities before the assignment and found that the capability of using MS Word, e-mail, and the internet was limited to 68.3%, 62.0%, and 49.2% of students, respectively, with 40.8% of students having some other IT capabilities. We found a considerable variation in IT capabilities among the students, which depended on IT learning at schools and the geographical locations where students came from. The main source of IT knowledge for students was an introductory IT course given in the medical school with the second source being private IT learning centers. Response to the IT-based assignment was very poor. The reasons for poor participation included a lack of time due to parallel subjects, poor IT knowledge, and poor IT resource availability. However, students were willing to have optional IT-based components and were aware that IT knowledge is important for medical students as well as doctors. This study shows the importance of improving IT knowledge in students and the need of improving IT resources in medical schools. With these improvements, physiology education can be enriched with more interactive IT-based learning activities, which help students to acquire knowledge more efficiently and effectively in developing countries like Sri Lanka.

Integrating an open-source course management system (Moodle) into the teaching of a first-year medical physiology course: a case study

“…These reports suggested that the implementation of Moodle was generally well accepted by the students as a supplement to traditional methods of teaching and has made an effective contribution to the teaching and learning process, including an improvement in student grades (7). Although a number of studies have shared their experiences on using customized web-based learning activities in the teaching of first-year medical physiology course (8,9,20), there is still a paucity of literature exploring successful models of how physiology educators can integrate readily available CMSs such as Moodle into their existing curriculum. This issue is pertinent as most medical educators have neither the required funds nor necessary computer skills to design a comprehensive web-based learning system for their students.…”

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“…For instance, in Sri Lanka, IT based components are not included in medical curricula in most medical schools, and experiences with IT-based activities in medical schools are limited. The case is the same for most developing countries, and publications on this topic from those countries are limited [11].…”

Change of perceived ICT skills of medical students over four years: a follow up study

“…Previous ICT based activities introduced in the undergraduate curriculum in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna have had mixed results (1,2) . One reason for failure was poor ICT skills of the undergraduates (3) .…”