Social networking is popular among new medical entrants of Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The rapid growth and adoption of social networking and internet telephony had affected many fields including education. OBJECTIVES: To assess the usage of social networking services (SNS) and Internet telephony (IT) and confidence in using SNS among new entrants to the Faculty of Medicine. METHODS: Moodle based self-administered questionnaire was given to new entrants in the 2015 and 2016 batches. Results: The results are described according to the 2015 (n=159) and 2016 (n=147) batches respectively. 93% (149(94%) in 2015 and 135(92%) in 2016, P= 0.53) had been SN and 52% (70(44%) in 2015 and 88(60%) in 2016, P<0.01) stated that they were confident in SN, among them 60% (21(49%) in 2015 and 36 (70%) in 2016, P<0.01) were males and 48% (49(42%) in 2015 and 52(55%) in 2016, P= 0.07) were females, where males were more confident in SN than females (P= 0.05). 65% (99(62%) in 2015 and 99(67%) in 2016, P= 0.35) had used IT and 23% (26(16%) in 2015 and 45(31%) in 2016, P<0.01 ) were confident, among them 29% (9(21%) in 2015 and 19(37%) in 2016, P= 0.09) males and 20% (17(15%) in 2015 and 26 (27%) in 2016, P= 0.02) were females, where the level of confidence was not different between males and females (P= 0.18). SN was high compared to IT usage (P< 0.01) and 2016 entrants showed high level of confidence in SN (P= 0.01) and IT (P= 0.01) compared to 2015. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the SN and IT are popular among students, confident level is low compared to the usage.