Abstract:

Education in Health Sciences is a demanding task. In order to face the growing knowledge in the field, tools that allow study management are becoming imperative for optimization of learning and teaching processes. ALERT® STUDENT, a platform for medical education, was devised to provide such tools, aiming to achieve learning goals with optimized time investment. It was already established the usability and tool usefulness of ALERT® STUDENT in previous research. The present study aims to evaluate how students spend their time on content study.
This platform allows study using a Study Mode (SM) and assessment of knowledge through using a Quiz Mode (QM). SM provides learning-oriented tools to easily navigate content, highlight text, take notes, track study time and mark content according to percept-knowledge (PK) data collected during QM. QM allows users to assess PK about individual content chunks using a 4 level Likert from 1 (full knowledge) to 4 (no knowledge).
A group of 42 students used the platform for knowledge assessment on a Notebook about molecular biology. Students were assessed in three sessions (S1, S2 and S3) separated by one-week intervals. In S1, students used the QM for 10 minutes. In S2 and S3, students used SM for 15 minutes before using QM.
Notebook study time significantly decreased over the sessions. In S2, students significantly spent most in the material with PK 4 during S1 QM. In S3, students significantly also spent most time in the items with PK 4 during S2 QM. Thus, the platform allowed individual prioritization of the study content according to self-PK.
In conclusion, by leveraging information and study management tools, ALERT® STUDENT may allow students to orient their study based on their percept-knowledge and therefore make more profitable the time invested in studying.

Keywords:

Medical education, Information management, e-learning, Evidence-based learning, Tailored learning, Student-centered learning, percept-knowledge.