Usefulness of a blended-learning modality in the medical career

Abstract

Introduction: Use of on-line educational modalities seems to be an irreversible trend all over the world. The blended-learning modality may be useful in courses with time limitations.

Objectives: To assess the usefulness for learning that medical students ascribe to a blendedlearning modality, analyze the effect of lacking personal computer or home Internet access on learning and the time devoted to work in the virtual classroom, and to explore the aspects of working with the blended-learning modality that the students like more and less.

Method: Cross-sectional survey with the participation of 430 students from the initial four semesters of the career. A virtual classroom was used for distribution of the clinical vignettes, videos and articles, and also for delivering the homework and for peer evaluation. Learning assessment was performed by multiple choice test, final grade, and self-assessment. A questionnaire was applied to evaluate the usefulness that the students ascribed to the blended learning modality and their learning self-perception.

Results: Most of the students (76%) considered that using the blended learning modality was useful for their learning. They spent 1.7 hours per week working in the virtual classroom for each hour per week spent in the facetoface classroom. Lack of personal computer or home Internet access had effects of little magnitude on the usefulness for learning ascribed to the utilization of the virtual classroom. 

Conclusions: Most of the participants shared the opinion that the blended-learning modality was useful for their learning. The results are encouraging for persisting in the use of the modality.