Impact of network aided platforms as educational toolson academic performance and attitude of pharmacology students

Abstract

Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the impact of learning management system and WhatsApp application as educational tools on students’ academic achievement and attitude.

Methods: The sample population was the students of six medical colleges of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia attending Medical Pharmacology’s semester course in Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program from September 2016 to January 2017. An exploratory approach was adopted based on a comparison between students exposed to only in-class lectures (Group-N), inclass lectures together with WhatsApp platform to disseminate the lecture slides (Group-W) and students group with in-class lectures facility blended with Learning Management System (LMS) and WhatsApp platform (Group-WL). The students’ grades were assessed using unified multiple choice questions at the end of the semester. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation (p<0.01).

Results: Using learning management system (LMS) and/or WhatsApp messenger tool showed a significant positive correlation in improving students’ grades. Additionally, use of WhatsApp enhances students’ in-class attendance though statistically insignificant.

Conclusion: The results are pivotal for a paradigm shift of in-class lectures and discussion to mobile learning (M-learning). M-learning through WhatsApp may be as an alternative, innovative, and collaborative tool in achieving the required goals in medical education.

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.336.13290

How to cite this:Khan AA, Siddiqui AZ, Mohsin SF, Al-Momani MM, Mirza EH. Impact of network aided platforms as educational tools on academic performance and attitude of pharmacology students. Pak J Med Sci. 2017;33(6):1473-1478.   doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.336.13290

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.