World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

IMPACT OF DIGITAL LEARNING IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL CURRICULUM IN PHARMACOLOGY: A TEACHER-STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

Dr. Diwanshu Sharma*, Dr. Pavan Malhotra, Adam and Apoorva Malhotra

ABSTRACT

Background: There are many innovations and trends in medical education that have been undertaken globally which include self-directed learning, problem-based learning, integrated teaching (IT) and community orientation. In addition to this there is multimedia learning. . Using multimedia in learning can help promote deeper learning and has positive impact in creating a learner-centred teaching environment. We feel a teaching method can be successful and will be able to draw students’ attention when it is not only interesting, informative and clinically oriented but also able to fetch better marks for the students in the examinations and assessment tests. Aims and objectives: To assess the efficacy of digital learning as a new methodology for teaching and to compare this digital learning in the classroom to that of teacher centered method. Methodology: A questionnaire was prepared containing ten questions and 100 MBBS students of 4th semester and 8 faculty members, were asked to answer the questionnaire. It included two systems i.e digital learning and conventional animal experiments. Two sessions were conducted during the study with each group. These sessions were conducted one week apart. In the first session the students were taught through traditional teacher centered method and in the second session the target group was exposed to digital learning teaching module. 100 students and eight faculty members included as subjects with sub grouping of 25 students and 2 teachers in each subgroup. Findings: It was observed that 98% medical undergraduates favoured the use of digital learning in comparison to teacher centered theory classes. All the medical undergraduates found digital learning much easier compared to teacher-centered classroom method. When feedback was taken from faculty members they believed that teacher centered classroom was better than digital learning in nearly all perspectives unlike in certain aspects like students were more focussed when taught through digital method. Conclusion: Digital learning is a better source of teaching and help medical students give better results during examination as well as when they enter the clinical field as their concepts will be more clear.

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