Biomedical Engineering and Healthcare Technology (BEAHT) Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Mar 28;23(1):189. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04132-4.
Over the last decade, developments in e-Learning and technologies are creating the groundwork for health sciences and medical education. Literature demonstrates that we have yet to reach any form of consensus about which indicators are needed to assess and teach quality health sciences and medical education through technology or innovation. There is, therefore, a greater need for a tool or platform that is properly constructed, validated and tested within health sciences.
This paper presents a study, which is part of a larger research project assessing staff and students' perceptions of the importance and relevance of different aspects of e-Learning and mHealth in health sciences curricula at four universities in South Africa. The specific objectives of this study were to: (i) assess health sciences staffs' perceptions and understanding of these two applications; and (ii) establish challenges and opportunities of e-Learning and mHealth applications in the health sector, as well as perceptions on the importance and relevance of these applications to their curricula and future practices. A combination of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and a key-informant interview was used. A total of 19 staff from four universities participated. Atlast.ti was used for the data analysis and the findings were coded using a primarily deductive thematic coding framework.
The findings revealed that not all staff members are equipped or trained with new applications or technologies, such as mHealth. Most participants believed that diverse technologies and tools could be integrated with mHealth and e-Learning. Furthermore, participants agree that a new multi-modal platform, in the form of a learning management system (LMS) with relevant applications (and possible plugins) integrated, tailored towards health sciences will benefit all stakeholders, and be valuable to higher education and health sectors.
Digitalisation as well as digital citizenship is gradually being integrated into teaching and learning. It is imperative to adapt the health sciences curricula through constructive alignments and promote health sciences education in the current 4IR. This would allow graduates to be better prepared for digitalised practice environments.
在过去的十年中，电子学习和技术的发展为健康科学和医学教育奠定了基础。文献表明，我们尚未就需要哪些指标来评估和通过技术或创新教授优质健康科学和医学教育达成任何形式的共识。因此，我们更需要一种在健康科学领域内经过适当构建、验证和测试的工具或平台。
本文介绍了一项研究，该研究是评估南非四所大学的教职员工和学生对电子学习和移动健康在健康科学课程中重要性和相关性的不同方面的看法的更大研究项目的一部分。本研究的具体目标是：（i）评估健康科学人员对这两种应用的看法和理解；（ii）确定电子学习和移动健康应用在卫生部门的挑战和机遇，以及对其课程和未来实践的重要性和相关性的看法。使用了焦点小组讨论（FGD）和关键知情人访谈的组合。共有来自四所大学的 19 名工作人员参加了研究。最后，使用了 Atlast.ti 进行数据分析，使用主要的演绎主题编码框架对研究结果进行了编码。
研究结果表明，并非所有员工都具备或接受过新应用程序或技术（如移动健康）的培训。大多数参与者认为，各种技术和工具可以与移动健康和电子学习集成。此外，参与者一致认为，一种新的多模式平台，以集成相关应用程序（和可能的插件）的学习管理系统（LMS）的形式，将使所有利益相关者受益，并对高等教育和卫生部门具有价值。
数字化以及数字公民身份逐渐被纳入教学和学习中。通过建设性的调整来适应健康科学课程，并在当前的 4IR 中促进健康科学教育至关重要。这将使毕业生更好地为数字化实践环境做好准备。
