Purpose The use of mobile devices among medical students and residents to access online material in real-time has become more prevalent. Most literature focused on the technical/functional aspects of mobile use. This study, on the other hands, explored students, doctors and patients’ preferences and reasons towards the use of mobile devices in clinical settings underpinned by the Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2).
Methods This research employs an exploratory research design using survey and semi-structured interviews. An online survey was administered to clinical year medical students, followed by semi-structured interviews with the doctors and patients. Questions for the online survey and semi-structured interviews were derived from previous literature and was then reviewed by authors and an expert panel. A convenience sampling was used to invite voluntary participants.
Results Survey findings showed that most medical students used their devices to find drug information and practice guidelines. The majority of the students accessed UpToDate followed by Google to access medical resources. Key barriers that students often encountered during the use of mobile devices were internet connectivity in the clinical settings, reliability of the information, and technical issues. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed four themes: general usage by students, receptivity of the use of mobile devices by students, features in selecting resources for mobile learning, and limitation in the current use of mobile devices for learning.
Conclusion The findings from this study assist in recommending suitable material using mobile devices to enhance learning in the clinical environment and expand the TAM 2.
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Methods Questionnaires were administered of year 2 medical students enrolled in a medical English course between 2016 and 2017 to investigate their experience in using Socrative. Learning outcomes were assessed by comparing students’ academic performance with that of the 2015 cohort, who had taken the same course without using mobile technology, and also by measuring changes in their self-efficacy in English over time during the course.
Results This study found students’ positive perceptions of and overall satisfaction with their experience in using mobile technology in the medical English course. There were no differences in the academic performance between the study cohort and the comparison group. The ratio of students who were in the remediation program after the mid-term examination was 11%, whereas the remediation ratio of the 2015 cohort was 21%. Students’ self-efficacy in English improved significantly in the writing and reading domains (p<0.05).
Conclusion This study found several benefits of using Socrative in the medical English course. Socrative fostered the classroom interaction by encouraging input from every student and sharing it instantly with the whole class. There was also learning improvement with the use of Socrative. Furthermore, it has the potential to enhance assessment by offering more various forms of assessment than that of conventional audience response systems.
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