Laura Briz-Ponce

Effects of Mobile Learning in Medical Education: A Counterfactual Evaluation

The aim of this research is to contribute to the general system education providing new insights and resources. This study performs a quasi-experimental study at University of Salamanca with 30 students to compare results between using an anatomic app for learning and the formal traditional method conducted by a teacher. The findings of the investigation suggest that the performance of learners using mobile apps is statistical better than the students using the traditional method. However, mobile devices should be considered as an additional tool to complement the teachers’ explanation and it is necessary to overcome different barriers and challenges to adopt these pedagogical methods at University.

Mobile Devices and Apps, Characteristics and Current Potential on Learning

Mobile devices and apps are placed in a prominent position in the daily routine of all people. The ubiquity and mobility are their main advantages. They are really becoming tools available for students and professionals in order to be totally connected anywhere and for consulting and accessing information of any field. In fact, the use of these devices has sparked a positive impact on medical sector as they allow implementing and including new technologies to make students more prepared for their future work. The goal of this paper is to describe the main characteristics and the use of mobile technologies in this field. The mobile technologys scope covers tablets and Smartphones. To achieve this goal, a survey was conducted in the University of Salamanca and the participants were undergraduate students of Medical Schools and medical professionals. Results reveal that the usage of mobile devices and apps are spread out among them. However, it is still necessary an in-depth analysis of the potential and the use of specialized apps for medical education.

Exploring mobile learning apps for medical students and health care professionals

There is an increasing number of Apps available in the different marketplaces. Most part of them are categorized according to the criterion of the developer, which may make this classification inaccurate sometimes. The object of this paper is to provide some insights regarding the use of health Apps among undergraduate medical students, residents, specialists and medical teachers. This paper also list the Apps most used and the reasons claimed by these participants in case they do not used them. The methodology used to collect the data was a non-instrumental design based on a questionnaire to retrieve quantitative and qualitative data. The final number of participants involved in this research was 124. The results obtained with this research reveal that 38% of them use this type of Apps. Besides, residents, specialists and medical teachers use more medical Apps than students. Finally, the two main reasons of not using them stated by the participants were the unawareness and the lack of necessity.

4d visual environment on mobile devices for learning in the human anatomy field

The use of mobile devices as educational and working tools in Higher Education is becoming a reality. However, the employment of mobile applications, also known as Apps, is very low, mainly due to the unawareness about them. This paper tries to highlight some of the apps that could be very interested and useful for medical teachers in the Human Anatomy subject. This new instruments cold motivate Health Sciences students and enrich the learning process.

Immersive visualization anatomical environment using virtual reality devices

An immersive system allows the user to experience a virtual environment. For the interaction to be as natural as possible, special devices are used to immerse ourselves in a virtual environment. The use of mobile devices in teaching is already a positive element in knowledge building, since the use of these technologies increase the possibilities of interacting with different options that applications for these devices present. We used the application Anatomyou to apply the technology of stereoscopic vision systems using virtual reality glasses in order to learn human anatomy, as a complementary and additional tool to the formal teaching of anatomy.