THE USE OF COMMUNICATION APPLICATION (WHATSAPP GROUP) AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL TOOL FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING OF UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS

Background
Smartphones and smartphone applications (apps) are nowadays trendy, especially among adult learners and Facebook is a well-accepted instructional social media for graduate medical education. Literature has shown that incorporation of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) with medical education is a new pedagogical strategy in cultivating dynamic engagement and shared learning of undergraduate medical students. To the best of our knowledge, albeit there is a growing amount of study on the impact of social media tool such as Facebook group, YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter in medical education, the use of communication application, for an instance, the messenger for as instructional aid is under-researched. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage of WhatsApp group messenger as a teaching and learning tool in medical education and its effectiveness on interactive and collaborative clinical medicine learning.

Methods
Study design: Quantitative comparative study
Study population: Fifty-four third year medical students from faculty of medicine and health sciences, University Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia were participated in this study. Informed consent was taken. They were separated into three rotation groups based on the average cumulative grade point average(CGPA) score, gender and ethnic. During the 8-week medicine junior posting, second and third rotation group was randomized to follow one of the two different blended learning; conventional e-learning platform or informal WhatsApp group messenger.

Results
Several usages of WhatsApp group messenger were observed not only as communication purpose but also for instructional purposes such as uploading e-books and lecture presentations, sharing clinical images and videos, instant feedback, exam preparation, discussion of clinical cases between the lecturer and students. Most active clinical case question and answer discussions were observed during last three weeks of rotation before the end posting exam (week 4 to 7). It was noted that an average of thirty (70%) interactive messages per week, related to module learning outcome was uploaded by the lecturer and 30% was contributed by the students itself. More than 80% of students were found to be active users. The group taught by blended learning method using the WhatsApp group showed statistically significant higher marks in end posting exam than other group (p<0.05).

Conclusions
WhatsApp group is a promising potential blended learning platform which enables student’s active engagement in collaborative learning and enhances the student learning experience. Its convenience of usage, user-friendliness and flexibility in learning while maintaining socialization allowed the students to communicate with the educators at any time, any space. Future research of other communication applications in teaching and learning clinical medicine should be explored.