Perceived Effects of Smartphone Usage on Students’ Attitude Towards Learning in a Health Institution

Abstract

The research is partly funded by College of Health, Yamfo, Ghana.

Abstract

Globally, the current advancement in technological gadgets has provided smartphones as a new tool for both teachers and students to support classroom and off classroom learning. This has led to the call for its integration into the educational system of health training schools in Ghana. The researchers studied health trainees’ perception on the effects smartphone usage has on their attitudes towards learning. This study was grounded on the views of constructivist theory of learning. A descriptive cross sectional study design was adopted. Among 614 health trainees studying various medical and allied health courses at the College of Health-Yamfo of Ghana, 138 students were selected using both stratified and systematic sampling methods. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. The outcome of the study indicated that health trainees who use smartphones in their learning activities develop positive attitude towards learning (76%). However, it was revealed that health trainees who do not use smartphones in their learning activities had negative attitude towards learning (57%). They were also not confident; did not complete assignments; depended on others during studies and did not have access to large volume of information via the internet. Finally, chatting through WhatsApp and other social media applications during lectures and small screen size were barriers to effective use of smartphone in learning activities. The study recommends development of policy that would encompass the integration of smartphone usage into teaching curriculum of health training schools in Ghana.

Keywords: smartphones, student learning, social media, health training schools

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-2-09