Faculty of medicine students' attitudes towards electronic learning and their opinion for an example of distance learning application

Abstract

The impact of technology on every aspect of life has resulted in a change in the curricula of many Faculties of Medicine all around the world. The longstanding classical sense of education in Faculties of Medicine has given way to integrated and interactive applications, and more active applications, e.g. electronic learning (e-learning), have been distinguished among others over the last decade with the help of ever-developing technology. The first stage of this research involved assessing attitudes of 414 first-, second- and third-year students at the Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine towards e-learning. The second stage, involving a session of “Ethics and Professionalism” within good medical practice (GMP), was synchronously conducted as a distance learning application with the participation of 17 students which was followed by receiving students' opinions. This study revealed that students' attitudes toward e-learning were neutral. With regards to the variables of gender, classroom level and academic success, faculty of medicine students' attitudes towards e-learning significantly differed in the variables of gender and academic success whereas it did not differ in the variable of classroom level. On the other hand, the students expressed that the distance learning application they had was very beneficial in terms of time. However, the students stated that the session of distance learning had limits for communication.