Developing and evaluating an e-learning package for medical students on genocide and public health

Makarious Awad,Nicki Keating,Heather Roberts,Sudhir Venkatesan,Puja R Myles

doi:10.5116/ijme.5207.b73b

Makarious Awad, Nicki Keating + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5207.b73b

Copy DOI

Abstract

Objective: This paper describes the development and evaluation of an e-learning package on the topic of genocide and public health aimed at undergraduate medical students. Methods: An e-learning package was designed based on pedagogical principles and was evaluated in a sample of second-year medical students. Students were asked to rate the usability of the e-learning package (design, interactivity, pace, suitability as a learning mode for the topic). The effectiveness of the e-learning package in relation to achieving learning outcomes was tested via baseline and postlearning activity questionnaires. Results: Out of 253 second-year medical students, 96(38%) participated in the evaluation of which 45% gave a score of 9 out of 10 for the e-learning package design, 97% preferred it as a learning mode over traditional lecture based teaching and 95% agreed that the package increased understanding of the topic. Immediately following the learning activity 93.75% of second-years agreed that genocide was a public health issue as opposed to 23.96% at baseline. 96% agreed that health professionals had a role in genocide prevention but only 32% agreed that they had a personal role in genocide prevention. Conclusions: The evaluation of the e-learning package suggested that learners found it well-designed and a preferred learning mode as compared to traditional lecture based teaching. There was some evidence of positive changes in knowledge and attitudes relating to genocide prevention and the role of public health immediately following the learning activity.

Highlights

Genocide is defined, according to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: 1. Killing members of the group 2
This paper reports on a project to design, develop and evaluate an e-learning package on genocide and public health for undergraduate medical students at the University of Nottingham
A project steering committee comprising Makarious Awad (MA), Heather Roberts (HR), Puja Myles (PM), and Nicki Keating (NK) agreed on the development and evaluation strategies to be used based on a consensus approach

Summary

Introduction

Genocide is defined, according to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: 1. Killing members of the group 2. Genocide often causes shortages of food, water and shelter along with poor sanitation and living conditions This results in long-term health sequelae which include infectious diseases and malnutrition.[2,5,6] It is important to realise that health professionals can have a role in the prevention and mitigation of genocide.[7,8]. Some of the educators within Public Health decided to develop a pilot educational initiative to provide an overview of genocide as a public health issue to test the receptivity of medical students to this concept Given that this was a pilot initiative combined with existing timetabling constraints, it was agreed that an e-learning package would be the best approach. The evaluation focused on the effectiveness and usability of the e-learning package as an educational intervention

Methods

Results

Discussion

Evaluation question

Limitations of the Study

Conclusions