Learning by doing: Smartphone app in undergraduate medical students’ research
Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2018, Pages 1-4
. C. Sahanaa, . Amit Kumar Mishra
Abstract INTRODUCTION: In communication process, feedback plays a major role. Usually, a formal/informal
feedback is collected from students on their experience and understanding about the tasks given by
the mentor to assess the learning process. Receiving high‑quality feedback (positive or negative)
is valuable from multiple perspectives. Students may or may not enjoy sessions on innovative
teaching–learning methods; in that case, feedback helps to modify it into a more effective and
acceptable method of teaching.
METHODOLOGY: With an objective to understand the students’ perception on a smartphone app
in community‑based research, a cross‑sectional study was planned among undergraduate students
posted for the re‑orientation of medical education. Epicollect5, a mobile app, was used for data
capture. Students were requested to submit their feedback by using the same app which they had
used during the survey. The received feedback was analyzed and presented in proportions.
RESULTS: Students shared that the new tool was easy to install (97.5%), user friendly (100%),
saved time in data collection and data entry (100%), and they also missed the usual practice of
paper‑based questionnaire survey (12.5%) and data entry in excel sheet (7.5%).
CONCLUSION: The students liked and enjoyed the paperless method of data collection and entry
which saved time and improved the quality of the data. They were also interested to learn more on
the designing or framing the questionnaire in app and planned to use the app in future research. The
feedback conveyed the immense welcome for new technology by the students into medical curriculum.