What makes medical students to say “yes” to e-learning?

Introduction With exponential expansion of Information Technology, the field of medical education has embraced innovative electronic learning (e-learning) techniques. The objectives of this study were to assess the acceptance of an integrated e-learning activity by first year medical students and to explore the association between the pattern of computer usage and their perception of such an intervention.  Methods A study was conducted among first year medical students (n=95) using a pre-tested validated self-administered questionnaire following an interactive e-learning activity which integrated the three basic sciences Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry. Results Mean ± (SD) age at first use of a computer was 11.25 (±2.9) years with a range of 4-20 years. Majority in this group (96.8 %) were using a computer before the age of 16 years. All those surveyed had access to a computer where a majority (77.9%) possessed their own computer. A majority of students (97.9%) mentioned that e-learning should supplement their lectures. The likelihood of students agreeing that e-learning should supplement their lectures was 2.3 times more in those who started using a computer before the age of 11 years (95% CI 1.001- 5.449, p= 0.045).  Conclusions In this group of first year medical students, positive perception towards an integrated e-learning activity was associated with the use of a computer at an early age. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljbmi.v4i1.5523 Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics 2013; 4 (1):7-13