JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet and laptop computers enable users to search for information and to communicate with others at any place and any time. It is increasingly common that such devices are also used at universities for teaching and learning. The use of mobile devices by students depends, among others, on the individual media literacy level and the curricular framework.

Objective:

The objective of the present study is to explore whether there are differences between students from various curricula at the Faculty of Health regarding their media use.

Methods:

During the 2015/16 winter term a survey was conducted at the Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, in which a total of 705 students (out of 1,091 students; response rate: 65 %) from four Schools participated voluntarily: Medicine (346/598), Dentistry (171/204), Psychology (142/243) and Nursing Science (46/46). The questionnaire developed for the study included 136 questions on four topics: 1) electronic and mobile devices (19 questions); 2) communication and organization of learning (45 questions); 3) apps/programs/websites/media (34 questions) and media literacy (34 questions). The questionnaire was distributed and anonymously completed during in-class courses.

Results:

All students of the various Schools had at least two electronic devices, with smartphones (97 %) and laptops (95 %) being the most common ones. Students agreed that electronic devices enable them to effectively structure the learning process (mean = 3.16) and share the opinion that university teaching should include imparting media literacy (2.84). Medical students had the most electronic devices (2.68) and were the only ones to use a tutorial (36 %). Dental students most widely used text messages (3.41) and social media (2.57) to organize learning. Psychology students considered mobile devices to be most ineffective (2.81). Nursing science students used emails (3.47) and desktop computers (39 %) most widely.

Conclusions:

The results show that almost all students use electronic learning tools. At the same time, different profiles for different degree programs become apparent, which are to be attributed to varying curricula and courses, but also to the different age groups’ life circumstances. Universities should therefore pay attention to students’ diverse user patterns and media literacy levels when planning courses to be able to use e-learning methods successfully.