Abstract:

Introduction:
The subject Medical Biophysics belongs to theoretical basis of medical education. It is taught in the first semester at the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava (FM CU). Time allocated to face-to-face teaching is very limited. There are totally 24 hours of lectures and 36 hours of practical training.
Initial knowledge and skills of students are very heterogeneous [1], influenced mainly by the fact that most students had at least one year break in physics education before starting their study at FM CU. Students understanding of particular topics in physics seems to be far away from the level that enables effective study of Medical Biophysics. These findings eventuated to the development and implementation of the e-learning course supporting the face-to-face practical training in Medical biophysics at FM CU.

Material and methods:
The course offers general information (e.g. occupational health and safety requirements, assessment rules, guidance on how to use the electronic form of measurement report, semestral project guidelines), additional study materials that can help students to understand units conversion, measurement errors and essentials of statistical data processing; and study materials explaining theoretical backgrounds of each particular task. The course also includes several video-guides of selected measurement procedures.
The e-learning course is offered in Slovak as well as in English language. The first version of course was recommended in the winter semester 2016/17 to 35 students of general medicine studying in Slovak language and 32 students studying in English language. Participation in the course was not obligatory.
Data provided by the learning management system were analysed in order to recognise students learning manners and preferences.

Results:
None of invited students had previous experience with e-learning. All invited plus five more students participated in the Slovak version of the course and 28 invited plus 11 more students participated in its English version. Students used respective materials shortly before the particular practical training. Part of students used them again few days before their final exam in medical biophysics. Materials explaining theoretical backgrounds of particular tasks were used most frequently. Students did not use the form of discussion forums.

Discussion and Conclusion:
First year experience of e-learning course supporting the practical training in medical biophysics indicates that students consider it as useful. Nevertheless students’ performance during the practical training often showed lack of understanding. It is necessary to extend the course with other forms of educational materials (contextual problem-based learning) and self-evaluation time-bounded tasks.

Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by KEGA 037UK-4/2016 "Monitoring and development of scientific abilities of university students of medical and biomedical study programmes”.

References:
[1] Haverlíková, V., Kozlíková, K.: can we start with biophysics at the same point for all students? In. EDULEARN16 – 8th International conference on education and new learning technologies. Conference proceedings. 2016, Valencia : IATED Academy, ISBN 978-84-608-8860-4, ISSN 2340-1117, pp. 5370-5374

Keywords:

e-learning, biophysics.