The art of note taking with mobile devices in medical education

Abstract

Background Students use mobile devices extensively in their everyday life, and the new technology is adopted in study usage. Since 2013, the University of Helsinki has given new medical and dental students iPads for study use. Simultaneously, an action research project on mobile learning started focusing on these students’ mobile device usage throughout their study years. Note taking is crucial in academic studies, but the research evidence in this area is scarce. The aims of this study were to explore medical and dental students’ self-reported study uses of mobile devices and their best practices of mobile note taking. Method An action research project began in 2013 and followed the first student cohort (124 medical and 52 dental students) with iPads from the first until the fifth study year. We explored students’ descriptions of their most important study uses of mobile devices and their perceptions of note taking with iPads. The longitudinal data were collected with online questionnaires over the years. The answers to open-ended questions were examined using qualitative content analysis. The findings were triangulated with another question on note taking and focus-group interviews. Results The response rates varied between 73 and 95%. Note taking was the most frequently and consistently reported study use of iPads during the study years. While taking notes, students processed the new information in an accomplished way and personalised the digital learning materials by making comments, underlining, marking images and drawing. The visual nature of their learning materials stimulated learning. Students organised the notes for retention in their personalised digital library. In the clinical studies, medical students faced the teachers’ resistance and ambivalence to mobile device usage. This hindered the full-scale benefit of the novel technology in the clinical context. Conclusions Efficient digital note taking practices were pivotal to students in becoming mobile learners. Having all their notes and learning materials organised in their personal digital libraries enabled the students to retrieve them anywhere, anytime, both when studying for examinations and treating patients in the clinical practice. The challenges the medical students met using mobile devices in the clinical setting require further studies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1529-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Hurdles for Adopting Mobile Learning Devices at the Outset of Clinical Courses

“…However, our results were consistent with previous research ndings (1,3,15). Both previous research literature and our own previous research on the rst cohort of medical students reported challenges in incorporating devices into clinical settings (13,17,18,19). For students, this was problematic because they were accustomed and pro cient in using mobile devices in the biomedical science courses in their rst two study years (19), and it was in the clinical setting that the importance of online information sources increased as they participated in patient care and needed immediate access to e.g.…”

“…An action research project has followed medical and dental students' use of iPads since then, collecting data on all new student cohorts and followed their mobile device use in both their pre-clinical and clinical courses (18). Therefore, an opportunity presented itself to explore the student cohorts' device use both vertically, following the development of a cohort during their study years (19), as well as horizontally comparing the device use of different student cohorts at certain stages of their studies. Our search of the literature has not discovered a similar study.…”

“…Most of the students were persistent in learning to use the new device as a learning tool (18). We observed (19) a peak in mobile learning in the biomedical sciences courses in the rst and second study years in which all the learning materials were delivered in the digital format before class and the electronic learning environment was well designed. Digital note taking was along with online information seeking the most important use of mobile devices in students' studies (19).…”

The role of undergraduate medical students training in respect for patient confidentiality

“…Another controversial aspect is that students have information about patients outside the healthcare centre. It is a problem that partially arises due to constant technological advances, which have favoured the storage of information and images in mobile devices such as phones, tablets, USB flash drives or laptops among the students themselves [ 58 ]. This practice poses a challenge to professionalism [ 59 ] and involves concerns related to both the privacy of the patient and consent to the availability of such data [ 60 ].…”

Integrating iPads into Team-Based Learning in the Pediatrics Clerkship: Do They Provide Any Value?

“…[4][5][6][7][8][9] Studies have also demonstrated the beneficial effects of iPads and mobile application integration in the clinical learning environment for formative activities such as note and order writing, radiographic interpretations, and learner assessment and feedback. [17][18][19] Our first pass at technology integration into group learning sessions within a clinical course was met with mixed results. As with many educational interventions, a "one size fits all" approach does not equate with success among learners who thrive with varied learning styles.…”