. Shital Sopanrao Maske; . Prathamesh Haridas Kamble; . Sushma Kushal Kataria; . Leena Raichandani; . Ruchika Dhankar
Volume 8, Issue 12 , December 2018, , Pages 1-6
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The present study assessed the feasibility, effectiveness, and students’ attitude towardhistology teaching using WhatsApp.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted 6 months ...
Read More
OBJECTIVE: The present study assessed the feasibility, effectiveness, and students’ attitude towardhistology teaching using WhatsApp.MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted 6 months of histology teaching session on a “Histologylearning WhatsApp group” consisting of 250 1st‑year medical graduate students at Dr. S.N. MedicalCollege, Jodhpur. A teacher posted a digital image of histology slides created using a mobile camera; aslide diagram sketched using hematoxylin and eosin pencil, identification points, and detail descriptionof slide followed by discussion of queries. The feasibility was measured by adequate enrollment ofstudents in the WhatsApp group, drop‑out rate during the teaching period, acceptability of the bystudents based on their feedback, and perception of the teacher. To study the effectiveness, weconducted an online test pre‑ and posttests after every 2 months. The Student’s attitude WhatsApplearning was assessed using the prevalidated feedback questionnaire.RESULTS: All the 1st‑year medical graduate students admitted in the year 2016 enrolled and mostof them were actively participated in the discussion conducted on WhatsApp group with zero dropoutrate. Students’ feedback indicated that students enjoyed learning using WhatsApp with betterparticipation than traditional teaching method. Students liked anytime, anywhere learning usingWhatsApp and it helped them to clear doubts. The statistical difference between average pre‑ andposttest scores (6.54 ± 2.33 and 16.37 ± 3.32, respectively) were statistically significant.CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that histology teaching using WhatsApp learning group is feasible,effective, and student‑friendly method. It should be used more frequently to complement traditionalteaching.
