Digital learning in medical education: comparing experiences of Malaysian and Japanese students

BACKGROUND: Medical education has undergone a transformation from conventional to digital learning, enabling learning without any time and place restrictions. Nevertheless, the actual trends of usage and its impact on learning motivation among medical students between developed and developing nations are yet to be investigated. Hence, this study compares the effect of digital learning on learning motivation among Malaysian and Japanese medical students in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Shiga University of Medical Science (SUMS) respectively. METHODS: A modified Students Motivation towards Science Learning (SMTSL) was used to assess the digital learning usage and learning motivation among 150 UKM and 147 SUMS medical students throughout Year 1 to 5. RESULTS: The frequency of digital learning usage and learning motivation among UKM medical students was significantly higher as compared to SUMS (p < 0.001). Electronic books (e-books) were the most preferred source of digital learning among UKM medical students as compared to SUMS medical students who used research articles, e-books, online courses and videos at similar frequencies. UKM medical students in the clinical phase exhibited a significantly higher learning motivation as compared to preclinical students (p < 0.05) but not among SUMS medical students. CONCLUSION: A suitable learning environment should be developed to encourage digital learning usage among different levels of medical students to enhance its complementary role in medical education and augment the level of motivation among medical students in continuous lifelong learning. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-021-02855-w.