Audience response system smartphone application as an adjunct to tuberculosis teaching for medical students during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The growing availability of devices for mobile learning has created new opportunities for teaching. With the development of smartphone apps based on audience response systems, there is a possibility to quickly assess student knowledge. The education of health professionals, including medical students, is an essential strategy for tuberculosis control. In the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, audience response systems are very useful as online assessment tools. The aim of this study was to use the audience response systems Socrative to assess medical students during a class on tuberculosis. METHODS: This is a quasi-experimental before-and-after study, with pre- and post-tests carried out through the Socrative app, respectively, before and after a lecture on tuberculosis for medical students. Also, a cross-sectional study was carried out after the course to evaluate the participant's satisfaction through an electronic, structured questionnaire with a Likert-type scale. RESULTS: A total of 126 students were included in the study. The overall mean pre- and post-test scores were 5.98±1.59 and 8.37±1.36, respectively, with a statistically significant difference (p<0.0001). Almost all students were totally satisfied with the use of Socrative on pre- and post-tests. CONCLUSION: This study describes how the use of Socrative in a tuberculosis class was well received by students. In addition, the baseline knowledge on tuberculosis was low in some topics, with some improvement after the lecture. These findings emphasize the need to further improve the students' knowledge on tuberculosis and help instructors customize the lecture based on the gaps identified in the Socrative assessment.