"Wherever, whenever" learning in Medicine

Evaluation of an interactive mobile case-based project

Abstract

The increased availability of smartphones with Internet capabilities has led many educators to consider their potential for delivering mobile learning materials to students. In 2009 and 2010 three case-based scenarios were developed for mobile devices by staff at the University of Sydney and The Children's Hospital at Westmead. A trial of the pilot scenario was held with fourteen medical students in late 2009. The students were positive and made recommendations for improving the case scenarios. Their suggested changes were incorporated into phase two scenarios in 2010. Throughout 2011 evaluations were conducted with a total of 171 students and quantitative analysis of the data was performed. Results indicated that whilst students liked the mobile cases, they did not utilise them as mobile resources as anticipated. Some differences were also revealed between the digital immigrants' and digital natives' interactions with the case scenarios, as well as some variations between male and female students.