Introduction: The main purpose of formative assessment is to improve students' learning and it should be seen as a part of the learning process. Game-based learning has become more common in the education and one of the emerging game-based learning platform used in education institutions is Kahoot. This paper investigated the perception of students towards Kahoot as a formative assessment tool in undergraduate medical education and its association with gender. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on first year medical students in a Malaysian public medical school. The study employed a survey that consists of 12 items through Kahoot survey platform. Result: A total of 113 subjects participated in this study; majority was female (68.1%) and Malay (58.4%). The students highly perceived Kahoot as fun, effective and better than e-learning platform for feedback as its median score was 4. The rest of items were satisfactorily perceived by the students as indicated by the score of 3 except for simplifying complex subjects that obtained unsatisfactory level. There were significant median score differences between male and female students for motivation and perceived knowledge retention, whereby males scored higher than females (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Kahoot is a promising formative assessment tool that is feasible, practical and makes learning fun and enjoyable. It can be used to motivate students to learn. However, Kahoot was not the best tool to simplify complex subjects as perceived by medical students.

Background Gamification is an increasingly common phenomenon in education. It is a technique to facilitate formative assessment and to promote student learning. It has been shown to be more effective than traditional methods. This phenomenological study was conducted to explore the advantages of gamification through the use of the Kahoot! platform for formative assessment in medical education. Methods This study employed a phenomenological design. Five focus groups were conducted with medical students who had participated in several Kahoot! sessions. Results Thirty-six categories and nine sub-themes emerged from the focus group discussions. They were grouped into three themes: attractive learning tool, learning guidance and source of motivation. Conclusions The results suggest that Kahoot! sessions motivate students to study, to determine the subject matter that needs to be studied and to be aware of what they have learned. Thus, the platform is a promising tool for formative assessment in medical education. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1658-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Smartphone plays a vital role in higher education as it serves as a device with multiple functions. Smartphone addiction was reported on the rise among college and university students. The addiction may result in unwanted consequences on their academic performance and psychological health. One factor that consistently relates to psychological distress and smartphone addiction is the neurotic personality trait. This study explored the relationship of smartphone addiction with psychological health and neuroticism among USM medical students. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out on medical students in a public medical school. DASS-21, the neuroticism-subscale of USMaP-i and SAS-SV were administered to measure psychological distress, neuroticism, and smartphone addiction of the medical students. Spearman correlation was performed to examine the correlation between smartphone addiction with psychological distress and neuroticism. Simple linear regression was performed to investigate relationship factors of smartphone addiction. Results A total of 574 medical students participated in this study. The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 40.6%. It was higher among male (49.2%) compared to female (36.6%) medical students. The result showed a fair positive correlation between smartphone addiction and psychological health (rdepression = 0.277, p-value < 0.001; ranxiety = 0.312, p-value < 0.001; rstress = 0.329, p-value < 0.001). However, there was a poor positive correlation between smartphone addiction and neuroticism (r = 0.173, p-value < 0.001). The simple linear regression showed a significant increase in the levels of depression, anxiety, stress and neuroticism upon one unit increase in smartphone addiction (bdepression = 0.101, p-value < 0.001; banxiety = 0.120, p-value < 0.001; bstress = 0.132, p-value < 0.001; bneuroticism = 0.404, p-value < 0.05). These results indicated significant relationships between smartphone addiction, psychological health and neuroticism. Conclusion This study suggested a high prevalence of smartphone addiction among medical students, particularly in male medical students. The smartphone addiction might lead to psychological problems and the most vulnerable group is the medical student with the neurotic personality trait.

Lecturers are expected to teach effectively and evaluating their teaching effectiveness are essential to ensure students get the best learning experience. A systematic evaluation of teaching behaviours with a proper feedback mechanism will help to improve their teaching effectiveness. Improvement of teaching effectiveness will result in better students' learning experience, and thus attaining the intended educational outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate teaching effectiveness among lecturers by assessing their teaching behaviours during lectures. A cross-sectional study was conducted on lecturers in a Malaysian public medical school. Their teaching behaviours were rated by 30 trained pre-clinical medical students using Teacher Behaviour Inventory (TBI) on seven aspects-organisation, speechpacing, clarity, enthusiasm, interaction, rapport, and disclosure. A total of 55 lecturers were rated by the medical students. The organisation and speech-pacing aspects were highly rated as the mean scores were 4.02 and 4.15, respectively. The clarity, enthusiasm, interaction, and rapport aspects attained satisfactory level as the mean scores ranged from 3.10 to 3.59. The disclosure aspect was poorly rated as the mean score was 2.20. Eventhough all lecturers in this school are considered expert in their area, findings from this study suggest that some teaching behaviour need some improvement. Findings from this study also provide useful data for the medical school to chart direction of faculty development activities to improve their lecturers' teaching effectiveness during lectures.

The internet is an essential part of our daily lives. Studies have reported various impacts of internet addiction on humans, including anxiety, stress and depression. The current study explores the prevalence of internet addiction and its relationship with psychological distress among medical students in Malaysian public university. The current cross-sectional study was performed among second- to fifth-year Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) medical students in the late 2019. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were used to gather data. The data collected were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0. A Spearman correlation test and simple linear regression were used for the data analysis. A total of 386 medical students (96.5% response rate) participated in this study. Data analysis found that the prevalence of internet addiction among USM medical students was 6.7%. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between internet addiction and psychological distress. Extensive use of the internet was found to be associated with elevated levels of depression, stress and anxiety. Findings regarding the effects of internet addiction are similar to those in other studies conducted among Malaysian medical students. This study has provided essential insights into the relationship between internet addiction and psychological distress among medical students. Further investigation should be undertaken to explore other possibly addicted groups. Higher education providers should be aware of these internet addiction issues among their students and interventions should be introduced to tackle this problem.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Deans’ Council of Public Malaysian Medical Faculties to tackle the issue of examinations in the face of movement control orders (MCO). A task force decided that final professional examination is necessary and three recommendations have been proposed. Online examination is among the best option with strict adherence to the Malaysian Medical Council guidelines. The majority of the universities used a Moodle-based Learning Management System; the examination will therefore mainly cover cognitive outcomes focusing on final professional exit examinations. It felt that cheating, although a real issue, is manageable and came up with several recommendations for the implementation based on likely outcomes of the MCO.

No abstract

This article described the context, planning and implementation of a video-conference-based undergraduate student selection exercise held in response to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. A task force has brainstormed the ideas and decided a face-to-face interview using a video conferencing application which was the best way to achieve the objective set for the exercise. Facilitators communicated with interviewers and candidates, and hosted video meetings between the two parties. Interviewers were trained using online videos, a webinar and a trial run. They rated candidates using a printed rating instrument as well as an online form. About 615 candidates were interviewed in this study. Initial impressions were positive and will be followed-up by a proper evaluation.