Nisha Narendran1, Lally M. S.2, Rajany Jose3
BACKGROUND
The current generation is rightly described as generation M (edia) highlighting the increasing time spent with media on any given day. The availability of mobiles and the absence of mobile jammers in lecture classes will seriously interfere with lecture attendance or concentration in lecture hours. We intend to take a survey on the level of social media use or use of smartphone for other non-academic uses by medical students during their lecture hours. We expect them to put forward their views as to how they perceive live lectures and what can be done to improve the effect of live lectures in this era of widespread and anytime media use.
Aims of the study were-
1. To conduct a survey among medical students in preclinical postings regarding use of social media use during live lecture hours.
2. To assess their perception regarding conventional lecture duration and the factors, which could improve their concentration during lecture hours.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among the participants. Approval was obtained from the Institutional Research Committee. All the 135 participants of the study were administered a semi-structured prevalidated questionnaire to assess their perception regarding live lecture and a survey regarding use of social media was taken. The collected data was entered into MS Excel and analysed using Epiinfo version 7. Percentages were used to quantify the results.
Settings and Design- The study was conducted among third semester students attending pharmacology lectures in Government Medical College, Thrissur.
RESULTS
77 (57%) participants agreed of using social media regularly in lecture hours. Majority used it to chat or connect with friends and in gaming either because of addiction or to avoid boredom. They were a majority in opinion that the hot noon time lectures should be cut short in duration. They preferred the use of newer technology based methods to be adopted for lectures being more effective.
CONCLUSION
There should be active intervention from the authorities to conduct mass surveys and assessments regarding integration of e-learning with traditional teaching methods among medical students of our country. The region specific changes accommodating the changing social persona of young adults have to be considered while planning the lecture schedule in medical education in our part of the world.
