Leveraging social media and mobile technology in anatomical science education (725.3)

Abstract

In the current trend of decreasing student‐instructor contact hours in basic science curricula, an innovative way to engage the current generation of technology‐savvy and “socially‐connected” students in learning, recalling and retaining anatomical science content was explored. The objective of the study was to; 1) assess students’ ownership and competence in using mobile devices, technology and social media; and 2) assess the value of utilizing social media and mobile technology in education. A survey, gauging students’ ownership and use of technology and social media was conducted with the first‐year graduate and dental students. For a period of one academic year, anatomical science questions were posted on a TwitterTM site 3 to 4 times a week, each followed by an answer the following day. All twitter posts were instantly cross‐posted on a FacebookTM page. Students’ retention was assessed by a quiz, 8 weeks after the anatomical science course and scores from those who chose to follow the posts on social media vs. those who did not were compared. The results reveal that a high percentage of current generation of professional students own mobile devices, are comfortable with technology and social networking applications. The results also suggest that social networking applications maybe a powerful educational tool to promote recall and retention of basic science content well after the conclusion of the course.