Abstract
Abstract
Background
Over the last decade, developments in e-Learning and technologies are creating the groundwork for health sciences and medical education. Literature demonstrates that we have yet to reach any form of consensus about which indicators are needed to assess and teach quality health sciences and medical education through technology or innovation. There is, therefore, a greater need for a tool or platform that is properly constructed, validated and tested within health sciences.
Methods
This paper presents a study, which is part of a larger research project assessing staff and students’ perceptions of the importance and relevance of different aspects of e-Learning and mHealth in health sciences curricula at four universities in South Africa. The specific objectives of this study were to: (i) assess health sciences staffs’ perceptions and understanding of these two applications; and (ii) establish challenges and opportunities of e-Learning and mHealth applications in the health sector, as well as perceptions on the importance and relevance of these applications to their curricula and future practices. A combination of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and a key-informant interview was used. A total of 19 staff from four universities participated. Atlast.ti was used for the data analysis and the findings were coded using a primarily deductive thematic coding framework.
Results
The findings revealed that not all staff members are equipped or trained with new applications or technologies, such as mHealth. Most participants believed that diverse technologies and tools could be integrated with mHealth and e-Learning. Furthermore, participants agree that a new multi-modal platform, in the form of a learning management system (LMS) with relevant applications (and possible plugins) integrated, tailored towards health sciences will benefit all stakeholders, and be valuable to higher education and health sectors.
Conclusions
Digitalisation as well as digital citizenship is gradually being integrated into teaching and learning. It is imperative to adapt the health sciences curricula through constructive alignments and promote health sciences education in the current 4IR. This would allow graduates to be better prepared for digitalised practice environments.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Education,General Medicine
Reference29 articles.
1. National Department of Health. (2013). Strategic plan for the prevention and control of non-communicable disease 2013–17. https://www.health-e.org.za/wpcontent/uploads/2013/09/NCDs-(Accessed 30 Nov 2020).
2. Bradshaw D, Groenewald P, Laubscher R. Initial burden of disease estimates for South Africa, 2000. South African Med J. 2003;93:682–8.
3. Rapport DJ, Howard J, Lannigan R, McCauley W. Linking health and ecology in the medical curriculum. Environ Int. 2003;29(2–3):353–8.
4. Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, Cohen J, Crisp N, Evans T, et al. Kistnasamy. Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet. 2010;376(9756):1923–58.
5. Garad A, Al-Ansi AM, Qamari IN. The role of e-Learning infrastructure and cognitive competence in distance learning effectiveness during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cakrawala Pendidikan. 2021;40(1):81–91. https://doi.org/10.21831/cp.v40i1.33474 (Accessed 12 Jan 2023).
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献