JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Teaching and learning interdisciplinary Health Informatics (HI) courses is challenging, and despite the growing interest in HI education, little is known about the learning experiences and preferences of HI students.

Objective:

We conducted a systematic review to identify the learning preferences and strategies in the HI discipline.

Methods:

We searched ten bibliographic databases (PUBMED, ACM, WEB of Science, Cochrane Library, Wiley, Science Direct, Springer, EBSCOhost, ERiC, and IEEE) from date of inception until June 2023. We followed the Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and included all types of studies that investigated the learning preferences or strategies of students in HI-related courses at any academic level.

Results:

After abstract screening and full-text reviewing of the 861 papers retrieved from the databases, eight studies were selected for narrative synthesis. The majority of these papers investigated learning styles, while only one paper studied learning strategies in HI. The systematic review revealed that most HI learners prefer visual presentations as their preferred learning input. In terms of learning process and organisation, they mostly tend to follow logical, linear, and sequential steps. Moreover, they focus more on abstract information, rather than detailed and concrete information. Regarding collaboration, HI students sometimes prefer teamwork and sometimes they prefer to work alone.

Conclusions:

Overall, the number of studies in this area is small. Therefore, more research needs to be done to provide insight into HI education. We provide some suggestions for conducting future research to address gaps in the literature. We also discuss implications for HI educators, and we make recommendations for HI course design.