Abstract
BackgroundE-learning resources (e-resources) have been widely used to facilitate self-directed learning among medical students. The Department of Biochemistry at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India, has made available e-resources to first-year medical students to supplement conventional lecture-based teaching in the subject. This study was designed to assess students’ perceptions of the impact of these e-resources on various aspects of their learning in biochemistry.MethodsSixty first-year medical students were the subjects of this study. At the end of the one-year course in biochemistry, the students were administered a questionnaire that asked them to assess the impact of the e-resources on various aspects of their learning in biochemistry.ResultsNinety-eight percent of students had used the e-resources provided to varying extents. Most of them found the e-resources provided useful and of a high quality. The majority of them used these resources to prepare for periodic formative and final summative assessments in the course. The use of these resources increased steadily as the academic year progressed. Students said that the extent to which they understood the subject (83%) and their ability to answer questions in assessments (86%) had improved as a result of using these resources. They also said that they found biochemistry interesting (73%) and felt motivated to study the subject (59%).ConclusionsWe found that first-year medical students extensively used the e-resources in biochemistry that were provided. They perceived that these resources had made a positive impact on various aspects of their learning in biochemistry. We conclude that e-resources are a useful supplement to conventional lecture-based teaching in the medical curriculum.
Highlights
E-learning resources (e-resources) have been widely used to facilitate self-directed learning among medical students
When asked about the frequency with which they accessed the e-resources, 58% of them said that they accessed the material just prior to periodic formative assessments, while 32% of students did so once or twice a week on a regular basis (Figure 1B, item 4 in questionnaire)
As the academic year progressed, the number of high users increased from 40% at the start to nearly 80% at the end of the course, with corresponding falls in the number of low users
Summary
E-learning resources (e-resources) have been widely used to facilitate self-directed learning among medical students. The Department of Biochemistry at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India, has made available e-resources to first-year medical students to supplement conventional lecture-based teaching in the subject. Conventional lecture-based teaching plays a major role in teaching biochemistry in the first year of the undergraduate medical course in India. The biochemistry curriculum is vast, the time available for teaching the subject is limited and the number of students in a class is usually large. Under such circumstances, lectures are often considered the best way to deliver considerable amounts of information to a diverse and large group of students [1,2,3].
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