Medical faculty members’ perception of smartphones as an educational tool

BACKGROUND: The rapid adoption of modern technology has changed many aspects of our life and communication; it has the power to influence and change the way we teach, learn and practice different types of professions mainly teaching and health care providing. Smartphone applications are increasingly becoming popular and widespread. Generally, these applications are likely to play a significant role in supporting education, in general, and medical education, in particular. This study aims at investigating how medical faculty members are using smartphones in medical education and practice, and how they perceive them as an educational tool at university level. METHODS: The researchers have distributed an online questionnaire - including three parts: a demographic part with five variables; a 15-item part of various applications of the smartphones; and a 14-item part measuring attitudes towards using these smartphones - among medical faculty members at two Palestinian universities. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Medical faculty members working at two Palestinian universities. Data have been collected from 30 participants out of 72 representing a response rate of 41.6%. RESULTS: The average skills score with smartphones usage is (3.18) which tells that faculty members use smartphones to support their teaching practices. In general, faculty members are positive towards smartphones as a prospective teaching tool since the average attitude towards using smartphones is (3.60). The study results show no significant differences among faculty members based on the five demographic variables, i.e. university, title, department affiliation, gender, and years of experience. CONCLUSION: It seems that the majority of faculty members believe that smartphones would be a significant instrument as well as addition to their teaching practices. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1697-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.