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Introducing E-learning in Epidemiology Course for Undergraduate Medical Students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade: A Pilot Study

The aim of this study was to determine whether e-learning as a new teaching concept was acceptable for second-year undergraduates and to compare attitudes and exam results of students who followed electronic compared with classroom seminars. The electronic seminars (e-seminars) were developed severa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gazibara, Tatjana, Marusic, Vuk, Maric, Gorica, Zaric, Milica, Vujcic, Isidora, Kisic-Tepavcevic, Darija, Maksimovic, Jadranka, Maksimovic, Nataša, Denic, Ljiljana Markovic, Grujicic, Sandra Sipetic, Pekmezovic, Tatjana, Grgurevic, Anita
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7087764/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26289627
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10916-015-0302-7
Descripción
Sumario:The aim of this study was to determine whether e-learning as a new teaching concept was acceptable for second-year undergraduates and to compare attitudes and exam results of students who followed electronic compared with classroom seminars. The electronic seminars (e-seminars) were developed several months prior to start of the epidemiology course for second-year students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade. The students who applied for e-seminars accessed their content during summer semester (February–May) 2014. E-seminars were set according to the existing topics in practical workbook and designed using Moodle, a free, open-source, personal home page web application for producing modular internet-based courses. To evaluate the motives for enrollment and satisfaction with seminars, two surveys (pre- and post-course) were administered. Students’ exam grades were registered over 4 exam sessions (June–October 2014) and compared according to seminar program. Out of 516 students in the second year, 60 (11.6 %) applied for e-seminars (mean age 21 years). Students considered the reason “It’s easier to do assignments from home” as the strongest motive to participate. When compared to classroom seminars, students in e-seminars had significantly more fun (p = 0.003), thought that e-seminars were better mode to learn epidemiology (p = 0.030) and would recommend them to other colleagues (p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in average grade received at the oral exam in epidemiology (t = 0.071, p = 0.944). E-seminars in undergraduate epidemiology course add a novel, easy-to-follow and amusing mode of learning. Based on this pilot study, e-seminars in epidemiology will be available for next generations of students, while further improvement of e-seminars could include expansion of seminar syllabus and development of discussion fora.