Knowledge and satisfaction of medical students with two methods of education for endocrine pathophysiology course: e-learning and lecture in classroom

Increasing access to hardware and software applications for e-learning has opened a new horizon facing educational institutions that can help to enhance the quality of education. This study was designed to compare the satisfaction and success rate of medical students for their endocrine pathophysiology course with two methods of education using e-learning vs lecture-based mode of instruction. This study was conducted on 57 medical students of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in academic educational year of 2012. Topics related to pathophysiology of endocrine system were divided into two parts. Half of the instructional content delivered via lecture-based approach by two other instructors while the remaining divided in two parts and conveyed by the researcher via e-learning and lecture. At the end of the course the level of satisfaction of the students was evaluated by a valid questionnaire and their scores in lecture courses were compared with scores in courses taught using distance education There were no significant differences between average test scores of students in e- learning courses (11. 9± 2. 7) and in lecture –based delivery of the course with the same teacher (12. 25± 2. 3) and also courses taught by lecture of other teachers (11. 2± 3. 4). The students were ranked based on their final scores in basic science courses. No difference was found between the scores of strong students in e-learning and lecture training contents. However، weak students got better scores in lecture training courses though their success rate to pass the courses were not different. E-learning is as effective as conventional lectures in training the pathophysiology of endocrine system course in medical students. Studies on comparing cost of the two methods are recommended