Impact of adding E-learning to the conventional pathology practical teaching

Introduction: WhatsApp is a popular standard smart-phone application being used by all students routinely. It could be used as an easy way of introducing E-learning in medical education. Objective To study the impact of E-learning by WhatsApp in Pathology practical teaching. To analyze the students' perception and satisfaction for E-learning Materials and Methods: This interventional study included 100 second-year MBBS students, divided into two groups (50-each)- ‘Study Group' and ‘Control Group'. The “control group' underwent conventional microscopic teaching during the Pathology practical sessions. The ‘study group' in addition to the conventional teaching had E-learning through WhatsApp. Microscopic images of the slides were sent to ‘study group' a day prior to the practical session and discussion/interaction was encouraged. After 12 practical sessions, assessment was done by post session test (Quantitative assessment). The ‘Study Group' was asked to answer the feedback Questionnaire (Qualitative assessment) related to their perception for the use of WhatsApp methodology of teaching. Results: The mean test score (Quantitative assessment) of the students in the ‘study group' was 18.6/20 (93%) whereas the score in the ‘control group' was 13.5/20 (67.5%). The difference in the scores of the two groups was statistically significant (p-value=0.0194). Feedback questionnaire revealed 100% satisfaction among the students and all recommended WhatsApp as an additional method of E-learning. There were no students in the ‘disagree' and the ‘strongly disagree' categories. 94% of the students felt that adding WhatsApp teaching motivated them for further reading. Conclusion: E-learning by WhatsApp was found to have high student satisfaction and it improved their performance in objective assessment in this study. It could be easily incorporated in the current teaching curriculum on a wider scale.