Abstract
BackgroundThe Public Health (PH) course at the medical college of Cairo University is based on traditional lectures. Large enrollment limits students' discussions and interactions with instructors.AimEvaluate students' learning outcomes as measured by improved knowledge acquisition and opinions of redesigning the Reproductive Health (RH) section of the PH course into e-learning and assessing e-course utilization.MethodsThis prospective interventional study started with development of an e-learning course covering the RH section, with visual and interactive emphasis, to satisfy students' diverse learning styles. Two student groups participated in this study. The first group received traditional lecturing, while the second volunteered to enroll in the e-learning course, taking online course quizzes. Both groups answered knowledge and course evaluation questionnaires and were invited to group discussions. Additionally, the first group answered another questionnaire about reasons for non-participation.ResultsStudents participating in the e-learning course showed significantly better results, than those receiving traditional tutoring. Students who originally shunned the e-course expressed eagerness to access the course before the end of the academic year. Overall, students using the redesigned e-course reported better learning experiences.ConclusionsAn online course with interactivities and interaction, can overcome many educational drawbacks of large enrolment classes, enhance student's learning and complement pit-falls of large enrollment traditional tutoring.
Highlights
The Public Health (PH) course at the medical college of Cairo University is based on traditional lectures
When comparing mean Reproductive Health (RH) knowledge scores between students participating in the e-learning module (n = 140) and those attending the regular lectures only (n = 155), we found a highly statistical significant improvement for students in the e-learning group (P < 0.001)
No difference was found among males and females attending the e-learning module, regarding their scores (P = 0.48)
Summary
The Public Health (PH) course at the medical college of Cairo University is based on traditional lectures. The predominant form of instruction in such high enrollment courses is large lectures as it is assumed that these are the only low-cost alternatives available. Such lectures have been criticized for treating all students as identical individuals, ignoring the fact that students have different levels of interest, learning styles, motivation, attention span and ability to learn [5]. Current students, who are dubbed as the “net-generation”, seem to have less attention span than previous generations [7] This makes it more difficult for even a very professional lecturer to maintain students’ attention in a large lecture presentation setting. Traditional large lecture presentations have problems in engaging the students and in meeting their individual learning styles
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