The students’ perspectives of the new Information Technology programme for the new entrants of the Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Background Information Technology (IT) is about to make a massive move into medical practice, not only in selected areas of 'high-tech' medicine, but throughout the field. Taken together with the experience from classroom teaching, optional teaching of basic information technology still needs to be integrated into medical studies. Therefore, the medical students must have a certain level of IT awareness to build a successful medical carrier. Methods An IT course was designed for the new entrants to the Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka to be followed during their orientation programme from November 2009 to February 2010. After following the course, feedback was taken from new entrants individually using a validated questionnaire. Results Ninty four point nine percent of students agreed that the contents of lectures and discussions were useful and 67.54% out of it were strongly agreed. Ninety three point six percent of the total have found the language used in teaching easy to understand but 55% of them were not strongly agreed. Forty seven point seven percent of the students have felt that the time allocation for modules was sufficient but 30.9% needs more time. Seventy eight point fine percent of total concluded as a well organized programme but 59.4% out of them needs it to be improved. Eighty seven point seven percent have felt the teaching sessions interesting. Conclusions The majority of students have felt that the course was well organized and have used a simple language and ultimately the teaching sessions have become interesting. The contents of the course were highly useful and they wanted the time allocated for the overall course to be increased.