Do our medical students even want e-learning? A user rated evaluation of case based e-learning in undergraduate medical education at the medical university of Vienna.

Abstract

Online platforms and other e-learning methods have shown a multitude of advantages compared to traditional classroom and lecture hall teaching. These include lower total cost, an increased temporal and spatial flexibility as well as taking individual interests and learning style preferences into account.

In this paper we evaluated a newly implemented e-learning program at the Vienna Medical University for medical students by assessing user acceptance and satisfaction of the novel program in the fields of psychiatry (PS), microbiology and laboratory medicine (ML) and orthopedic surgery (OS). We showed a high participation of the voluntary courses, whereby more than half of the students felt more prepared for the end of year exam and 70% stated having felt that the entire project was a profitable learning experience. In future, we aim to use these data in improving current didactic frameworks by extrapolating an optimal e-learning case template in length, difficulty and user interface.