Implementation and evaluation of a self-directed learning activity for first-year medical students

Abstract

Background: It is critical that medical students develop self-directed, lifelong learning skills to navigate medical school successfully and to become competent healthcare professionals. Moreover, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the USA medical school accrediting body, requires activities designed to help students develop self-directed learning (SDL) skills in the preclinical years. Objective: We evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a self-directed learning activity in a 6-week first-year medical student course. Design: The course director assigned infectious disease case studies to teams of first-year medical students who individually assessed their knowledge gaps of the case, identified scholarly sources to fill their knowledge gaps, shared the information with their teammates, and reflected on their ability to guide their own learning. Students were asked to rate workload, team effort, acquisition of new clinical knowledge, and lifelong learning skills. Students were also asked to reflect on how this assignment affected their perception of their SDL skills. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze responses to the Likert scale questions. Thematic analysis was applied to the comments. Results: Survey response rate was 80% (131/163). Students strongly or moderately agreed that 1) they spent an appropriate amount of time on the project (94%), 2) the workload was evenly distributed among their teammates (95%), 3) their teammates made significant and timely contributions to the project (97%), 4) the project contributed to learning new clinical knowledge (92%), and 5) the project contributed to the acquisition of lifelong learning skills (85%). The analysis team identified four themes from student reflections on their perception of their self-directed learning skills: self-learning skills, collaboration, application, and metacognition, Conclusions: Study results demonstrated that we successfully implemented a case-based SDL activity in a first-year medical school course and that students perceived the activity as a valuable learning experience.

Scope and Challenges of Self-Directed Learning in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Systematic Review

“…Here, students scrutinize the topic of learning by online reading and videos to prepare for their classroom-based activities, becoming a method of SDL (20). The implementation of the flipped classroom teaching poses significant challenges to both students and faculty in medical schools (12).…”

“…SDL proved to have these qualities (1, 12, 18-20, 23, 25, 26). SDL also helped students improve their time management (1,12,21,(23)(24)(25). Thus, SDL will have several advantages if ap-plied with the proper direction of the methodology.…”

Appropriate use of self-directed learning at medical school prepares students for future clinical practice

“…We would firstly like to credit Hill et al [1] for providing insightful research into the evaluation of self-directed learning for first-year medical students. As fourth-year medical students at The University of Sheffield Medical School, we believe that self-directed learning is an integral aspect of the medical curriculum.…”

Self-Directed Learning in EFL During Covid-19 Pandemic: Teacher’s Perception and Students’ Learning Autonomy

“…It means that students are required to develop their independence and be more independent in learning. Self-directed learning is a process in which students take the initiative to identify their learning needs, formulate learning objectives, determine learning resources, apply appropriate learning strategies and evaluate their learning outcomes, with or without the help of others (Hill et al, 2020;Suryadewi, Wiyasa, & Sujana, 2020). In March 2020, due to the coronavirus disease global outbreak, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture issued a new regulation requiring students to study from home.…”

“…This learning allows students to experience a sense of self-awareness to master a certain piece of knowledge and then slowly begin to manage the learning process (Van der Walt, 2016). This kind of experience is useful in building lifelong learning habits (Devi et al, 2016;Hill et al, 2020). Lifelong learning skills are very important in the 21st century because humans must learn throughout their lives to survive in a global society.…”