The effect of distance learning via SMS on academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Recently, medical education has made significant progress, and medical teachers are trying to find methods that have most impressive effects on learning. One of the useful learning methods is student active participation. One of the helpful teaching aids in this method is mobile technology. The present study aimed to determine the effect of sending educational questions through short message service (SMS) on academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students and compare that with lecture teaching.SUBJECTS AND METHODS:In an semi-experimental, two chapters of urology reference book, Smiths General Urology 17th edition, were taught to 47 medical students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in urology course in 2013 academic year. Kidney tumors chapter was educated by sending questions through SMS, and bladder tumors part was taught in a lecture session. For each method, pretest and posttest were held, each consisting of thirty multiple choice questions. To examine the knowledge retention, a test session was held on the same terms for each chapter, 1 month later. At the end, survey forms were distributed to assess student's satisfaction with SMS learning method. Data were analyzed through using SPSS 20.RESULTS:The findings demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the two learning methods in the medication test scores. Evaluation of the satisfaction showed 78.72% of participants were not satisfied.CONCLUSIONS:The results of the study showed that distance learning through SMS in medical students could lead to increase knowledge, however, it was not effective on their satisfaction.

Microlearning in Health Professions Education: Scoping Review

“…Banning’s theoretical framework used in Chuang and Tsao’s study of the effect of microlearning on nursing pharmacology students examined how students acquire, store, and retrieve knowledge and how it differentiated between reasoning styles [32]. Chuang and Tsao and Sichani et al also used the information processing theory (IPT) to guide their curriculum design [32,33]. Similar to Banning’s framework, the IPT examined how individuals acquire, store, and then retrieve knowledge (stimulus and response).…”

“…This repetition significantly increased students’ memory of cardiovascular medications and supplied the study material for later referral. Using the IPT, Sichani et al sent questions via text that were relevant to the material covered in lectures during class; these students showed significant improvements in pre- and posttest scores compared with students who did not receive the texts [33].…”

“…Cheng et al utilized a 3-min instructional video on short-arm volar splinting to provide JITT to medical students at a US children’s medical center [29]. Both Sichani et al and Swartzwelder sent out single multiple-choice questions daily to students via SMS texts [33,34], whereas Lameris et al utilized an app to provide students with practice questions that needed to be answered within 60 seconds [31]. All of our 17 studies featured the concept of shortened time spent—less than 15 min.…”

“…By shifting to the role of a prosumer transforming from a consumer to a producer, learners are more motivated and feel a greater responsibility for the achievement of their own learning goals [19]. Sichani et al argued that self-directed learning was encouraged by the delivery of single answer or multiple-choice questions to Iranian medical students via SMS [33]. Wang et al found a significant difference in the scores of the students who actively responded to the WeChat push notifications from faculty compared with those who did not reply ( P <.01) [42].…”

Effect of smartphone-based education on knowledge and self-care of reproductive health in married students

“…There are studies in Iran conducted to evaluate the effect of using mobile based education on the emergency nurses’ knowledge about the Emergency Severity Index,[ 15 ] determining the effect of e-learning education on primipar women's knowledge on neonatal care,[ 16 ] as well as evaluating the effect of distance learning through SMS on academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students. [ 17 ] Given the importance of reproductive health in young people and with regard to the previous studies, the researcher did not a study on the effect of education programs on promoting knowledge and self-care behaviors of students’ reproductive health based on smartphone-based software On the other hand, due to the innovation of the plan and the importance of software-based education on promoting healthy behaviors, the research team decided to conduct a study to investigate the effect of smartphone-based software on change of knowledge and self-care behaviors of reproductive health in married students as a susceptible population group in this field.…”