Abstract
BackgroundTechnological advances have driven huge change in educational practices though concerns exist about a lack of evidence informing this change, in particular with social media-based medical education activities. The purpose of this study was to conduct a scoping review of WhatsApp use in medical education, narratively describing how it has been used and evaluated, and the theoretical considerations in relevant articles.MethodsA modified 5-stage scoping review model was used. We performed 2 searches from February 2009 to February 2019 in EBSCO, SCOPUS, Web of Science, EMBASE, Medline PubMed and Google Scholar) using the term “WhatsApp” in all search fields. A 3-stage process for study selection was performed. Only original articles in English presenting original data about WhatsApp in medical education were included. The Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation was used to describe learning outcomes in included studies.ResultsTwenty-three articles were selected for review. Three strategies for WhatsApp use were apparent; primarily educational use with a pre-defined curriculum (n = 5), primarily educational use without a curriculum (n = 11), and primarily non-educational use (n = 7). Most of the educational studies used an online moderator and were in a local hospital or university department. Studies not primarily educational were national or international and seldom included an online moderator. All 5 studies with a pre-defined curriculum reported Kirkpatrick level 2 learner knowledge outcomes. A majority of the remaining studies only reported Kirkpatrick level 1 learner attitudes. Seven studies with 647 participants reported an improvement in learners’ knowledge following WhatsApp learning, though methodological weaknesses were apparent. Evidence for underlying learning theory considerations were scant throughout the studies.ConclusionsWhatsApp is popular and convenient in medical education. Current published literature suggests it may also be effective as a medical learning tool. By combining the 3 strategies for WhatsApp use and the exploration-enactment-assessment integrated learning design framework, we propose an instant messenger design model for medical education. This may address the need for theory-driven instructional design in social media learning. Further research would clarify the role of WhatsApp and our design model in this area.
Highlights
Technological advances have driven huge change in educational practices though concerns exist about a lack of evidence informing this change, in particular with social media-based medical education activities
Identifying the research questions The selected research questions were: (1) How has WhatsApp® been used as a learning tool in medical education? (2) How has WhatsApp® been evaluated as a learning tool in medical education? (3) What educational theoretical principles were evident in studies of WhatsApp® as a learning tool in medical education?
Summary of the articles Twenty-three articles were included in the review, all published in the years 2015–2018 [10, 17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38]
Summary
Technological advances have driven huge change in educational practices though concerns exist about a lack of evidence informing this change, in particular with social media-based medical education activities. Advances in information technology have driven huge changes in many aspects of human behaviour and communication. These changes have had considerable implications for educational practices. MIDs enable access to two main resources for the medical learner; applications and social media (SM) networks. The former, an extensive list, include UpToDate®, Medscape®, peer-reviewed journals and numerous podcasts [3]. IMAs, while not primarily educational in nature, share common features which can facilitate learning; group collaboration, peer communication independent of time and geographical location, and multimedia message sharing [5,6,7]
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