ArticleBMC medical education2019
The art of note taking with mobile devices in medical education.
Article in BMC medical education, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Digital Undergraduate Education in Dentistry: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- "Lives and times": The case for qualitative longitudinal research in anatomical sciences education.Anatomical sciences education · 2026Review
- Evaluating the Use of a Note-Taking App by Japanese Resident Physicians: Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Practical Recommendations for Navigating Digital Tools in Hospitals: Qualitative Interview Study.JMIR medical education · 2024Article
- Understanding the interplay of self-regulated learning strategies in medical education: A cross-sectional structural equation modeling study.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Understanding the Functional Components of Technology-Enhanced Learning Environment in Medical Education: A Scoping Review.Medical science educator · 2023Article
- Qualitative longitudinal research in health research: a method study.BMC medical research methodology · 2022Article
- The Understanding of Medical Informatics among Dental and Medical Students.BioMed research international · 2022Article
- Effect of M-Learning on promoting the awareness of faculty members of the universities of medical sciences of Iran about their employment regulations in 2020.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Hurdles for adopting mobile learning devices at the outset of clinical courses.BMC medical education · 2021Article
- The role of undergraduate medical students training in respect for patient confidentiality.BMC medical education · 2021Article
- Integrating iPads into Team-Based Learning in the Pediatrics Clerkship: Do They Provide Any Value?Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundStudents use mobile devices extensively in their everyday life, and the new technology is adopted in study usage. Since 2013, the University of Helsinki has given new medical and dental students iPads for study use. Simultaneously, an action research project on mobile learning started focusing on these students' mobile device usage throughout their study years. Note taking is crucial in academic studies, but the research evidence in this area is scarce. The aims of this study were to explore medical and dental students' self-reported study uses of mobile devices and their best practices of mobile note taking.
methodAn action research project began in 2013 and followed the first student cohort (124 medical and 52 dental students) with iPads from the first until the fifth study year. We explored students' descriptions of their most important study uses of mobile devices and their perceptions of note taking with iPads. The longitudinal data were collected with online questionnaires over the years. The answers to open-ended questions were examined using qualitative content analysis. The findings were triangulated with another question on note taking and focus-group interviews.
resultsThe response rates varied between 73 and 95%. Note taking was the most frequently and consistently reported study use of iPads during the study years. While taking notes, students processed the new information in an accomplished way and personalised the digital learning materials by making comments, underlining, marking images and drawing. The visual nature of their learning materials stimulated learning. Students organised the notes for retention in their personalised digital library. In the clinical studies, medical students faced the teachers' resistance and ambivalence to mobile device usage. This hindered the full-scale benefit of the novel technology in the clinical context.
conclusionsEfficient digital note taking practices were pivotal to students in becoming mobile learners. Having all their notes and learning materials organised in their personal digital libraries enabled the students to retrieve them anywhere, anytime, both when studying for examinations and treating patients in the clinical practice. The challenges the medical students met using mobile devices in the clinical setting require further studies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.