L. V. Snegireva, Candidate of biological sciences,
assistant professor,
ORCID 0000-0002-8935-0511,
sneglv1@gmail.com
Kursk State Medical University,
Kursk., Russia
University foreign students’ e-learning has proved itself as the great educational tool
E-learning with a number of indisputable advantages [1, 4], implies great requirements for the students’ information competence [2, 3].
In this regard, the purpose of the study was to determine the information competence level of the international faculty students.
Material and methods. 244 first-year international faculty students were interviewed at the end of an academic year. Examinees study General Medicine in Kursk State Medical University in English. Students were grouped in accordance to their results of educational activity:
• high rate of academic progress – 27 % of examinees;
• average educational activity – 70 % of students;
• poor educational results – 3 % of examinees.
For the research, the original questionnaire in English was used, which includes 12 positions. The experiment was held in constant conditions for all groups of students: the research was held at 11 a.m. in the academic auditory. The research duration was about 12 minutes. The medical faculty students performed the testing independently.
The experiment showed great difference between foreign students in the information competence level. For example, first year students from Brazil and Malaysia were found as confident users of computer technologies. On the contrary, representatives of India and Sri Lanka are examinees with an insufficient level of information culture that, leads to some difficulties in e-learning process.
Thus, multimedia lectures are not considered as the necessary element of medical university educational process by 20 examinees (8.2 % of students). Just 87.5 % of students with poor educational results assess multimedia lectures as the appropriate element of e-learning (with respect to 95.3 % of examinees with average academic rate).
Problem tasks on computer were esteemed as an ineffective e-learning element by 3.3 % of international faculty students: 6 % of foreigners with high results of educational activity and 12.5 % of low academic rate examinees. First-year students with poor educational results found computer practice difficult because
· computer interface insufficient knowledge, that causes some errors in computer tasks,
· inadequate keyboard skills, that lead to wasting of typing time, technical errors in typing and etc.
The same kind of problems were found for the international faculty students in performing computer laboratory work: effectiveness of this e-learning component was confirmed by 88.5 % of examinees with poor educational results.
By testing results, electronic manuals are not appreciated as effective e-learning component by a quarter of first-year students that experience certain difficulties in links and electronic schemes usage. 16.4 % of foreigners cannot navigate electronic manuals chapters quickly to find necessary educational material. They are not able to use self-control opportunity of testing programs. 19.7% of examinees reported fatigue after electronic manuals usage.
However, it is interesting to note that the third part of foreign students prefer electronic manuals to printed versions. 30 % of examinees constantly use electronic manuals in class. High educational rate students are more active in electronic manuals usage than examinees with low results of educational activity: 31.8 % compared to 12.5 %. 57.6 % of high academic rate foreigners work with electronic manuals in extracurricular time more than three hours per day. And only a quarter of first-year students with poor educational results spend the same operating time with electronic manuals.
By testing results, only 9 % of examinees considered computer testing as an ineffective e-learning component. However, all international faculty students with low rate of academic progress appreciated computer testing, esteeming its sufficient objectiveness. First-year students with low results of educational activity mention following computer testing advantages:
• choosing between possible answers in computer testing allows to remove a linguistic barrier for students;
• definite algorithm of testing programs eliminates psychological discomfort of foreign students
To our mind, the results of research have great importance for development of international faculty educational system, since it gives idea of effectiveness and, therefore, the expediency of e-learning different elements, taking into account the information culture level of medical university foreign students.
Bibliography
Уважаемые авторы! Кроме избранных статей в разделе "Избранные публикации" Вы можете ознакомиться с полным архивом публикаций в формате PDF за предыдущие годы.