The Future of Education
Make health students’ learning more efficient and effective requires clinically appropriate teaching and learning strategies.
Suha AlMuhaissen, Acting Head of Development and Capacity Building Department (OERBLC) Assistant Dean for Training Affairs Senior Lecturer, Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology School of Pharmacy The University of Jordan (Jordan)
Faten Hamad, The University of Jordan (Jordan)
Christine Urqhart, Aberystwyth University (United Kingdom)
Ruba Tarawneh, The University of Jordan (Jordan)
Mays Abu Ajamieh, The University of jordan (Jordan)
Mozdalefah Assad, The University of Jordan (Jordan)
Abstract
The aim was to investigate attitudes towards m-learning among health sciences (medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing and rehabilitation) students in Jordan, to inform e-learning platform development in line with digital professional competencies expected of clinicians.
A web-based cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire using Google forms was administered to 703 students from the five clinical schools at the University of Jordan. Views of faculty (n=8) were obtained informally.
Response rate was 98.2% (690/703). Although students used mobile devices (mainly smartphones) to support their learning, use was not well advanced, and most preferred face to face learning. Some differences among the groups of health students indicated that m-learning habits vary according to curriculum content and clinical skills required. Faculty and students generally agreed that blended learning was the best approach to incorporate m-learning, with some differences of opinion on the advantages.
The main general needs are for mobile learning activities that are clinically relevant, engaging (and preferably of the adaptive learning variety), with short online tests to increase self-efficacy. Different solutions are required for different clinical disciplines.
Key words: mobile learning, medical students, clinical sciences, student attitudes, learning management systems
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