Abstract

Background: The technological advances and the internet contributed to the development of the e-learning resources. Internet applications do the distribution of digital content to its end users learners simultaneously over wide area.

Aims and Objectives: The present study was carried out to find the use and purpose of using internet among the medical students.

Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done committee in 200 undergraduate medical students and 50 interns after the permission of Institutional Ethics. Questionnaire was validated by experts and administered after receiving due consent.

Results: Out of 250, 61.6% were female and 38.4% were male. The average age was 22.01 ± 1.37 years. Nearly 93.6% have access to internet and 79.49% had access at home or hostel. Nearly 48.29% used internet on smartphone. Nearly 97.6% have email address. Students from urban area used internet more frequently than from rural area. About 44.4% rely on internet for medical information. About 90.40% feel the need to use internet during medical studies. The reason for using internet was 92.4% for time-saving and 92.8% for latest knowledge. Females depended more on their friends for internet use than males. In first year, students searched maximally for anatomy and in second year for pharmacology subject. Most common website for searching nonmedical information was Google (56%) and for medical was Wikipedia (51.2%). Nearly 68.40% feel need to use internet in medical curriculum. About 92.8% feel that internet training is necessary and 94.8% feel internet will have positive impact on academic performance.

Conclusion: There is urgent need to undertake training for improvement of internet skills in medical undergraduates. This will be helpful to enhance e-learning skills and easy assimilation in medical education.

Key words: Internet; Google; Wikipedia; Medical Students; Medical Education