Using a Facebook Group for interactive clinical learning
- Author:
Velayudhan Menon
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
e-learning, interactive learning, online learning, medical students
- From:International e-Journal of Science, Medicine and Education
2012;6(1):21-23
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Background: Facebook is a popular social networking
site with more than five hundred million users.
This study assessed whether Facebook Groups can be
used to teach clinical reasoning skills.
Methods: Sixty-seven final year medical students
from the International Medical University, Malaysia,
were exposed to interactive online learning through
a Facebook Group for a period of six months in this
study. The purpose was to determine if supervised
interactive online learning could be used to augment
the deep learning that comes from learning medicine
at the bedside of patients. The interactive online
discussions were entirely triggered by clinical problems
encountered in the medical wards of the general
hospital to which these students were attached.
Results: A total of 10 topics were discussed in this
forum during the duration of this study and an example of
one such discussion is provided to illustrate the informal
nature of this kind of learning. The results showed a
high degree of student involvement with 76 percent of
students actively participating in the discussions.
Conclusion: The high degree of voluntary participation
in the clinical discussions through the Facebook Group
in this study tells us that Facebook Groups are a good
way of engaging students for learning and can be used
in medical education to stimulate creative clinical
thinking.
- Full text:W020150928549934515154.pdf
