Abstract:

The use of information technology and internet support in education has intensified having important role in teaching. The Institutododelta.com.br website was designed to provide information about health and morphology in the web. The objective this study was to evaluate the access to internet and the websites about morphology as a complementary tool, helping the academic performance of undergraduates. The research was conducted with enrolled students’ Physiotherapy and Biomedicine courses of the Federal University of Piaui during one semester. A questionnaire was applied to the undergraduates and consisted of questions which approach their access to the Internet, the Internet access frequency, the access frequency to social networkings. There were also questions related to the Institutododelta.com.br website and its teaching resources in morphology and health (access frequency and resources used). The statistical analysis consisted by calculation of value of t student to comparison of access frequency to Internet and to websites about Histology and Embryology and Fisher’s exact test to evaluate the approval rating in Histology and Embryology course and the access frequency to the Institutododelta.com.br website and also access frequency in Internet, using the statistical software Bioestat, version 5.0 (Belem, PA, Brazil). A total number of undergraduates interviewed were seventy six. 72.8% said access internet seven times per week. 74 undergraduates said have some kind of social network similar value when compared with total number of undergraduates who access websites about Histology and Embryology (69 undergraduates). The access frequency to Internet was higher compared to access to websites about Histology and Embryology (tvalue = 15.6058, p<0.0001), although the undergraduates who accessed the Institutododelta.com.br website did not show greater approval rate than those who did not accessed (p = 1.000). The access frequency in Internet and approval rate wasn’t statistically different (p = 1.000). Among many cited social networkings, Facebook had the highest percentage of access by interviewed, having value of 96.1The access to Internet provides the materials to students need for their work when they didn’t obtain information by different ways due to the Internet is an extensive regarded of health information. Although the access to Internet was high, the access to website about Histology and Embryology just was before application test wherein 36.4% of interviewed affirmed this point. The use of social networkings can be dedicated to education because understand why and how the studies use this sites is crucial for the academic community, most information about health or morphology are thus easily accessible to students. In conclusion, our data showed that access to the website institutododelta.com.br not shown to be important for the approval of the students during the semester in the discipline of Histology and Embryology. Furthermore, our study showed that the use of social networks can be a way to provide educational content complementing learning.

Keywords:

Education, Morphology, Internet.