Use of Computer Assisted Learning as an Alternative to Experimental Pharmacology Teaching: Student's Opinion.

ABSTRACT

To evaluate student opinion on use of CAL in the MBBS 2nd professional experimental practical pharmacology curriculum.Also to get their views on the advantages and disadvantages of using CAL over traditional methods. A cross-sectional questionnaire based study was conducted at HIMS, Dehradun and Uttarakhand. After explaining the purpose of the study, voluntary inform consent was taken from the subjects before the start of the study. Students were instructed on experiments followed by computer simulation of the same. Thereafter avalidated self-designed questionnaire form was duly filled by each respondent.Out of the total 98 students, 88 (90%) of these thought that CAL is an effective method of teaching practical aspects. They also agreed to the fact that CAL should be conducted as an adjuvant to practical classes. Majority of students agreed that using CAL was advantageous to them .CAL is accepted as a welcome change byundergraduate students. However on the other hand practical knowledge of how to do the experiment is lost.