gms | German Medical Science

Symposium Methodik der Medizinischen Ausbildungsforschung

25. - 26.05.2013, Berlin

How do "digital natives" learn pharmacology? A mixed-methods study on the use of learning media by undergraduate medical students

Vortrag

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  • corresponding author Joanna Gutmann - Technische Universität München (TUM), Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, München, Deutschland
  • author Stefan Engelhardt - Technische Universität München (TUM), Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, München, Deutschland
  • author Antonio Sarikas - Technische Universität München (TUM), Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, München, Deutschland

Jahressymposium des GMA Ausschuss für Methodik der Ausbildungsforschung. Berlin, 25.-26.05.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2013. DocID11

doi: 10.3205/13maf11, urn:nbn:de:0183-13maf119

Published: April 23, 2013

© 2013 Gutmann et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Projektvorstellung

Background: The current generation of undergraduate medical students grew up in an environment in which internet and computer-based technologies have been an integral part of life. This cohort born after 1982 is often referred to as "Net-Generation" (Gibson & Manuel, 2003) or "Digital Natives" (Prensky, 2001). While it is widely acknowledged that this generation is more technologically savvy than their predecessors, it remains to be investigated if their use of learning media is fundamentally different.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the use and acceptance of different learning media by undergraduate medical students in pharmacology.

Methods: A mixed-methods study consisting of quantitative (surveys, web statistics) and qualitative methods (focus groups) was conducted during a four-week pharmacology course with 372 undergraduate medical students at Technische Universität München (Munich, Germany). To assess the most frequently used learning media during the course period, daily online-surveys were conducted for 35 days. The students were asked to name the 1st, 2nd and 3rd most frequently used learning medium of the previous day from a list of ten different items (textbooks > 300 pages, textbooks < 300 pages, lecture slides, smartphone apps, internet search, e-learning cases, podcasts, e-books, written notes, exam questions). A total of 275 of 372 students (73%) participated in the surveys with a daily average of 73 (SD: 26) participants. The online surveys were linked to a web-based smartphone app (http://www.tum300.de) of 300 curricular drugs. Access codes were randomized to all students to anonymously track individual web-app usage. A paper-based survey was conducted after completion of the pharmacology course to retrospectively gain information on the use and acceptance of mobile learning media in the study cohort. 322 of 340 students participated (95%).

To qualitatively assess the potential of digital learning media in undergraduate medical education, focus groups (3 groups with 5-7 participants and 120 min each; a total of 18 participants) were conducted. Discussion content was transcribed using f4 transcription software (Dresing & Pehl, Marburg, Germany) and analyzed with MAXQDA quantitative analysis software (Verbi, Berlin, Germany).

Results: The 1st, 2nd and 3rd most used learning media during the 35 day course period were lecture slides (27%), smartphone apps (22%) followed by written notes (15%), textbooks> 300 pages (10%), e-learning cases (8%) and internet search (8%). The numbers indicate the proportion of each learning medium in percent in relation to all learning media on the list. No significant changes in media use were found during the 4-week period, with exception of exam questions (higher ranked in pre-exam period) and textbooks (gradual reduction). 80% of the students (258 of 322) owned a mobile internet device (smartphone or tablet-PC). Of these, 37% stated that the use of smartphone apps intensified learning, and 23% indicated that the use of apps resulted in a more constant learning activity.

Focus groups revealed that students appreciate smartphone apps as tools to consolidate knowledge through repetition, rather than primary knowledge acquisition and learning. In particular students valued the possibility to access information at the point of need and the various options for addressing diverse and individual learning styles.

Conclusions: This study is the first "real-time" longitudinal analysis on the use and acceptance of learning media by undergraduate students in pharmacology. Both quantitative and qualitative data revealed a high acceptance and use of digital learning media, in particular smartphone apps. The latter were primarily valued as tools for knowledge consolidation, rather than knowledge acquisition. We thus conclude that mobile learning media such as smartphone apps might constitute a powerful learning and teaching medium for undergraduate medical education of digital natives.


Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.