Introducing E-learning in Epidemiology Course for Undergraduate Medical Students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade: A Pilot Study.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Gazibara, Tatjana Marusic, Vuk Maric, Gorica Zaric, Milica Vujcic, Isidora Kisic-Tepavcevic, Darija Maksimovic, Jadranka Maksimovic, Nataša Denic, Ljiljana Markovic Grujicic, Sandra Sipetic Pekmezovic, Tatjana Grgurevic, Anita
Abstract	The aim of this study was to determine whether e-learning as a new teaching concept was acceptable for second-year undergraduates and to compare attitudes and exam results of students who followed electronic compared with classroom seminars. The electronic seminars (e-seminars) were developed several months prior to start of the epidemiology course for second-year students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade. The students who applied for e-seminars accessed their content during summer semester (February–May) 2014. E-seminars were set according to the existing topics in practical workbook and designed using Moodle, a free, open-source, personal home page web application for producing modular internet-based courses. To evaluate the motives for enrollment and satisfaction with seminars, two surveys (pre- and post-course) were administered. Students’ exam grades were registered over 4 exam sessions (June–October 2014) and compared according to seminar program. Out of 516 students in the second year, 60 (11.6 %) applied for e-seminars (mean age 21 years). Students considered the reason “It’s easier to do assignments from home” as the strongest motive to participate. When compared to classroom seminars, students in e-seminars had significantly more fun (p = 0.003), thought that e-seminars were better mode to learn epidemiology (p = 0.030) and would recommend them to other colleagues (p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in average grade received at the oral exam in epidemiology (t = 0.071, p = 0.944). E-seminars in undergraduate epidemiology course add a novel, easy-to-follow and amusing mode of learning. Based on this pilot study, e-seminars in epidemiology will be available for next generations of students, while further improvement of e-seminars could include expansion of seminar syllabus and development of discussion fora.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC7087764&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	01485598
Journal	Journal of Medical Systems [J Med Syst]
Volume Number	39
DOI	10.1007/s10916-015-0302-7
PubMed Central reference number	PMC7087764
Issue Number	10
PubMed reference number	26289627
e-ISSN	1573689X
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2015-08-20
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Subject Keyword	E-learning Epidemiology Medical students Seminars Undergraduate
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Health Information Management Medicine Information Systems Health Informatics