Students' view of a learning method: opinions of first year medical and dental students in the School of Basic Medical Sciences of University of Lagos, Nigeria, about problem based learning.

BACKGROUND: Driven by a desire to improve basic medical science education, the department of Anatomy in the College of Medicine University of Lagos introduced the Problem Based Learning (PBL) programme into the Anatomy component of first year Basic medical science training of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a students' assessment of the different aspects of this newly introduced PBL. METHODS: Structured questionnaires were circulated among first year Medical and Dental students in the School of Basic Medical Sciences of the University. Apart from relevant personal data that would not compromise identity of respondents, we sought to find out through relevant questions students' opinion about various aspects of the programme. The respondents had to grade their responses on a scale of 1 through 5 (representing strongly agree to strongly disagree) to indicate their level of agreement/ disagreement to simple statements designed as completions to a single stem statement. RESULTS: The class generally rated the use of PBL and the activity of the department in the programme high whilst also highlighting the areas of challenges where some major improvements needed to be observed. CONCLUSION: The established benefits of the PBL approach are reproducible even when implemented newly in a challenging and often times difficult environment in a developing country.