Initial experience of eLearning research module in undergraduate medical curriculum of Dow University of Health Sciences: Development and students perceptions

Objective: To describe the course development and student perception of eLearning Research module for the undergraduate medical students of Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi. Methodology: In December 2011 and January 2012, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) started first six-weeks eLearning Module of Research Methodology for the 1st semester MBBS students. All university campuses have digital libraries equipped with computers with networking and internet facility. 'Articulate Studio 09' was used to made flash based presentations with interactions followed by assessment with the use of kwik surveys. Student perception was evaluated after each session by quantitative and qualitative methods. Results: Total 539 students of all three colleges affiliated with DUHS completed the evaluation Form. Most of the students (492, 93.1%) rated highly the overall layout of eLearning module. Text of the module was found to be clear and informative by 81.1%. Contents were judged as not according to student's level of understanding by 34.5%. Overall experience of the first session was rated excellent by 23% and good by 64% with (cumulative 87.2%). However, students had mixed opinion about requirement of their computer skills for this eLearning module. Qualitative evaluation showed very good experience of students and they want more topics to be covered with this modality. Conclusion: This module proved to be not only a good experience for our faculty members about eLearning instructional design and its execution but was also rated very highly by the students. Our experience will be helpful for other institutes as well, who are planning to start eLearning in their medical curriculum.