The use of mobile learning by 6th-year medical students in a minimally-supported environment

Abstract

Objectives: The study aims to identify the impact of minimal support on medical students' mobile learning activities. Methods:The study was performed at the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, on 129 medical students in their 7 th year.The study consisted of a quantitative survey of the students, focussing on their mobile learning activities during their 6 th year, while using their own mobile devices (such as smart phones) for mobile learning activities. In addition, their perceptions of barriers to, and advantages of, using mobile devices were investigated. Data were analysed using Microsoft Excel and EpiInfo.Results: All students used their mobile device as telephones and used most of the sophisticated applications. There was significantly less usage made of medical applications, such as clinical guidelines and medical reference tools. Barriers were screen size, cost, limited memory and battery. Advantages were time-saving, ease of access and use. Few students (14%) highlighted lack of institutional support as a problem.Conclusions: Lack of support does not mean lack of usage. It does, however, mean predominantly simple usage. Given the importance of mobile devices in modern medical practice, this has strong negative implications for the professional preparedness of students studying in such environments.

Use of smartphones among medical students in the clinical years at a medical school in Sub-Sahara Africa: A pilot study

“…Most frequent usage of mobile phones in this study were for personal applications, accessing lecture notes and searching academic resources. This pattern of usage is similar to what was found among final year medical students in Oman 11 . In contrast, clinical students in two medical schools in the United States of America (USA) used handheld devices more frequently as drug references and clinical calculator.…”

“…In addition, our students have only limited responsibility in patient care and this may also be factor. Masters et al 11 suggested similar reason for poor point of care usage of mobile phones by final year students in his institution.…”

“…The survey questionnaire used in the study was adapted from the one used in a previous study 11 . The questionnaire was in four parts.…”

Social Networking Addiction among Health Sciences Students in Oman

“…39,40 Similarly, professional usage of mobile applications and SNSs by students and qualified health professionals is wellestablished. 36,[41][42][43][44] It is for this reason that usage rates must be seen in light of students' use of SNSs for work-related activities. In terms of the current study, generalisations about work-related SNS usage were difficult-not only was Twitter used less than the other two SNSs, it was also used far less for work-related activities than the other sites.…”

Creation of mHealth content aimed at medical students

“…Other platforms: As Sultan Qaboos University does not issue students with devices, and offers only minimal technical support for m-learning and mHealth (Masters & Al-Rawahi 2012), we need to take into account cross-platform compatibility or at least equivalent systems to iBooks Author (e.g. Book Creator for Android).…”