Interdisciplinary Journal of Virtual Learning in Medical Sciences
Volume:8 Issue: 4, winter 2017

Mentoring is used as a developmental model in many academic disciplines including clinical medicine and public health sciences. An effective relationship between the instructor or faculty member and the student can be particularly helpful in the professional growth and improvement of students, especially, in clinical disciplines. The current study aimed at presenting a framework for effective e-mentoring relationships in medical sciences to improve the quality of e-mentoring in this field.
The current study presented a framework for effective e-mentoring relationships using a qualitative meta-synthesis method. The previous studies on the effective factors in mentoring relationships from 2000 to 2017 were analyzed. The research population included all indexed articles in PubMed, Sage, Taylor and Francis, Science Direct, Emerald, Springer, Scopus, and Web of Science. After 2 stages of screening based on the title and abstract of the articles, 90 articles were selected and studied. Finally, 27 articles with the highest relevance to the topic were selected as the research sample. Research data were extracted from these articles by means of open coding, and then, the data were analyzed and synthesized.
Twenty-eight minor components were identified for effective e-mentoring in medical sciences in higher education. The main e-mentoring framework was organized in terms of 4 major components; i e, communication medium, quantity of communication, quality of communication, and communication outcome.
In light of the findings of previous studies on mentoring in higher education over 17 years, the current study presented a framework for policy-making, evaluation, and development of mentoring relationship between instructors and students in clinical medical sciences in higher education.

Context: The present study was conducted to explain the curriculum characteristics (including, goal, content, teaching-learning strategies, and evaluation) of the e-learning system based on principles of the constructivist approach.
The current study used the document-analysis method. The analytical codes were extracted from the main components of the curriculum in the constructivist approach presented by international and Iranian eLearning theories. In this research, qualitative content analysis using a deductive method was also applied. Discussion and conclusion about the research questions was done, after analyzing the research codes and establishing a relationship between the codes. Furthermore, 30 faculty members of the field of distance learning evaluated the validity of research findings and confirmed the validity. The study population consisted of all articles and theses related to the research subject in scientific databases. The method of sampling in the selection of articles and theses was the “purposive-theoretical” method and the snow ball sampling method, as a systematic sampling method, was used to select the specialists
According to the epistemological principles of constructivist approach, the nature of subjective knowledge, cognitive practices, such as discussions, conversations, and personal mental representations, are symbols, and there are no independent-of-mind facts.
Educational goals are employed to strengthen communication skills, negotiation, decision-making, problem-solving, and critical-thinking. The instructors’ duties are not to present facts but to create grounds for thought. The goals are determined through the negotiation process between the instructor and learners. The content features the reliance on selection and adaptation of diverse contents with learners with the problem-based approach. In the eLearning system, however, the evaluation is evolutionary and qualitative.

Cultural clubs involve a variety of programs and classes that seek to enhance the culture and identity of the citizens. The present study determined the effect of informal education by cultural centers on Shiraz citizens’ development, social excellence, and citizenship culture.
The study was a descriptive and applied research. The population included citizens, who attended cultural center classes (N = 230). Overall, 145 participants were selected based on the Morgan Table (132 females and 11 males) and through simple random sampling. Two questionnaires, including social identity and citizenship culture, were used. The reliability and validity (0.81) of both were confirmed and determined. The data was analyzed descriptively and inferentially (Pearson test and regression model) by the SPSS version 22 software.
The results of the social identity questionnaire was average, according to the median of 56, and that of the citizenship culture questionnaire was good, according to the median of 90. The analysis showed that informal education by cultural centers affected social identity (P = 0.002 Given the role of informal education provided by cultural centers in citizens’ development and social excellence and culture, using this educational method would be of great help for the society.

Entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with knowledge, skills, attitudes, and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success in a variety of settings. The purpose of the present study was to perform content analysis of curriculum syllabus for the educational technology discipline based on entrepreneurial competencies.
The research population consisted of all 763 academic curriculums of the educational technology discipline at the University of Tehran during years 2016 to 2017, where the census sampling method was used for their selection. To select them, the purposive sampling method in the entrepreneurs section and census sampling method in the educational technology course syllabus section were used. The research tool in this study was a semi-structured interview and a content analysis checklist was used. This study used a summative qualitative content analysis approach. Initially, interviews were carried out with 12 entrepreneurs to extract entrepreneurial competencies. Then, based on their competencies, a content analysis checklist, including 46 entrepreneurial competencies, was designed in a subset of 6 categories, so that the presence of entrepreneurial competencies in the syllabus of the undergraduate educational technology curriculum was analyzed. To determine the validity of the tool, content validity was used and a check list was provided to three educational specialists and was approved and used after correction. The content analysis construct validity was verified by supervisors, consultants, and entrepreneurs and its reliability was calculated as 94% using William Scott’s method.
The results showed that the presence of entrepreneurship competency structure among the curriculum syllabus of educational technology at Tehran University did not have a desirable condition.
Therefore, it is imperative that higher education professionals and curriculum developers should take the necessary steps to push students towards entrepreneurship in terms of reviewing the curriculum in educational technology at Tehran University.

Since mobile learning is emerging as an alternative approach to teaching, educational institutions have used this approach to improve the teaching and learning process. This paper aimed at exploring learners’ experiences of mobile learning in vocational and technical education courses.
The research method in this study was phenomenology. In this method, researchers investigated learners’ lived experiences of mobile learning in vocational and technical education courses by semi-structured interviews. Participants (two classrooms: 32 people) were all learners, who attended this course.
According to theme analysis of interviews, nine basic themes were identified, two organizing themes and one global theme. Based on thematic analysis, the results showed that learners had a positive perception of mobile learning.
Using mobile learning, learners gain greater quality and in-depth learning and the opportunity to study anywhere and at any time.

The approach of learning at any time and place has largely come to fruition with the advancement of wireless technologies and mobile learning. Mobile learning, as an open-source e-learning model, refers to the acquisition of knowledge, attitude, and skills by utilizing mobile technologies. The purpose of this study was to determine the employees’ attitude towards Shazand petrochemical company regarding the use of mobile learning using the TRA model.
The present research method in terms of purpose is applied and in terms of collecting data is descriptive-survey. The statistical population includes all employees of Shazand petrochemical company, which is1700, according to the latest statistics of Shazand petrochemical company in 2015. By using the simple random sampling method, 313 employees were selected as samples. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire with a reliability of 0.88 that its validity was confirmed by the professors and experts in this field. For data analysis, one-sample t-test and SPSS version 17 software were used. The significance level was considered as 0.05.
Findings showed that the rate of learning tendency (P = 4, 0, 32 ± 0.63), behavioral control (P = 0.000, 4.19 ± 1.01), awareness and subjectivity (P = 0.000, 4.900 ± 1.7), and finally, the intention to learn (P = 0.000, 3.55 ± 1.5), among employees of Shazand Petrochemical Company are high on the use of mobile learning.
According to the results of the study, the level of the desire to learn, the level of behavioral control, awareness and mindfulness, and the intention of learning among employees of Shazand Petrochemical Company, can conclude that there is a very positive and appropriate mentality about this type of learning among employees of the company.