The use of an online student response system to support learning of Physiology during lectures to medical students

Online-based response systems are increasingly used as a continuous assessment tool in classroom due to availability and ease of access. The present study aimed to validate the utilisation of online-based exercises for teaching to medical students. For this study, Socrative, a free online platform was used in teaching a physiology component of a second year module. Students’ performance and evaluation of this approach was investigated with regard to participation in the class, understanding of the concepts and performance in the final exam. The performance of the class in multiple choice questions (MCQs) related to Socrative daily activities at the end of module and final exams was greater by some 24% (P < 0.05) compared to performance in questions with no Socrative background exercise. Moreover, the exam performance of students in 2016 after the introduction of Socrative was higher by 14% (P > 0.05) compared to a previous year, 2014 where no Socrative activities were used. The students’ feedback regarding the utilisation of online-based exercises showed ~85% of respondents think that these activities were either ‘very important’ or ‘important’ to enhance their participation in the class and ~88% indicated that it is either ‘very useful’ or ‘useful’ to consolidate their understanding of this module’s material. The findings from this study indicate that the use of online-based exercises through Socrative was positively received by medical students as an interactive classroom activity that also enhanced performance.