Undergraduates’ perception on Collaborative learning; A case study based on Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern university, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Currently, higher education is moving towards student-centered learning from teacher-centered learning, to enhance the active involvement of the students in the teaching-learning process. As a student-centered learning approach, Collaborative Learning is an active learning strategy where students work in small groups to optimize their teaching-learning activities. It promotes the students to help and support each other by working as a team. Collaborative Learning is important in Health care education since the health professionals work as a team in order to solve complex problems and as well as to serve their community. To facilitate the collaborative learning strategy among undergraduates, this study aimed to assess the students’ perception on Collaborative Learning. Third-year first-semester Medical and BSc Hons (Nursing) undergraduates were included in this cross-sectional descriptive study following a small group discussion. Out of 72 Medical students, 52 students participated in this study. And out of 32 BSc Hons (Nursing) undergraduates 23 students responded. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data by using Google Forms. The questionnaire consisted of five perception statements with a 5- point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Descriptive statistics were used to describe the students’ perception on collaborative learning. Chi square test was used to identify the significant difference between MBBS and BSc Hons (Nursing) Undergraduates on collaborative learning. The majority of the participants prefer the collaborative learning method over the traditional teaching method. 57.7% Medical & 56.5% BSc Hons (Nursing) undergraduates strongly agreed that Collaborative Learning improves their active participation in the classroom. 98.1% of medical undergraduates perceived that they could build strong relationship with their peers while attending Collaborative Learning. A chi-square test showed that there was no significant difference between medical and BSc Hons (Nursing) undergraduates. The general outcome of this study revealed that the undergraduates of the Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University, Sri Lanka have a positive perception on Collaborative Learning