Abstract
BackgroundThe importance of mobile phones has become one of the new research topics in health professions education due to the ease of access and flexibility. Although novel approaches to health professions education recommend the use of educational technologies, such as mobile applications, a limited number of studies have been conducted with regard to learning anatomy through mobile applications. Considering the increasing needs of medical students for mobile technology to meet their educational needs, wants and desires, we decided to explore the features of an anatomy mobile application.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted in two stages of holding focus groups, and an expert panel session. Students of basic Medical sciences, and faculty members of anatomy at Iran University of Medical Sciences formed the research participants. Semi-structured interviews and note-taking were used to collect the data. Moreover, Brown and Clark methods were used for thematic analysis. Finally, four criteria presented by Lincoln and Guba for qualitative studies were used to ensure the credibility, confirmability, trustworthiness and transferability of the data.ResultsBased on the data analysis, 37 codes that could be used to design anatomy mobile content for medical students were extracted. These features were categorized into eight main themes of “visual richness”, “scientific comprehensiveness”, “auditory richness”, “affordability”, “user-friendliness”, “self-assessment”, “interactive content” and “user support”.ConclusionThis study explored the features of an anatomy application that can be used by educational app developers. Anatomy departments at Medical Universities, policymakers, and curriculum planners in the field of medical education can also adopt the findings of the present study.
Highlights
The importance of mobile phones has become one of the new research topics in health professions education due to the ease of access and flexibility
The main approach to teaching was lectured-based teaching, while currently, with the emergence of novel educational technologies, and the new trend emphasizing on knowledge enhancement, medical students can benefit from new approaches to learning, which have received increasing attention over time [3]
Some believe that the use of mobile phones for learning may cause distraction, ending up using social media or playing games, and that the small size of the screen may cause difficulty in displaying the total information needed at a time [5, 6], it has become a major topic of education and research in medical education due to ease of accessibility at anytime and anywhere [7]
Summary
The importance of mobile phones has become one of the new research topics in health professions education due to the ease of access and flexibility. The main approach to teaching was lectured-based teaching, while currently, with the emergence of novel educational technologies, and the new trend emphasizing on knowledge enhancement, medical students can benefit from new approaches to learning, which have received increasing attention over time [3]. Mobile phones are considered to be appropriate for enhancing the quality of medical education, and this is the reason for the high popularity of mobile phones as effective tools for learning [8]. They reduce the workload of inperson education system, provide a round-the-clock learning experience, facilitate education, and reduce educational costs [3]. With regard to the pressure of modern trends on higher education, and based on the positive attitudes and perceptions of students, mobile apps are important and effective novel means for educational purposes [10]
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