ReviewCureus2025
The Impact of Learning Technologies on the Learning Environment of Medical Students in Africa: A Review of the Current Literature.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Medical education continues to evolve rapidly, reshaping how future health professionals are trained and supported. This evolution reflects broader global trends toward learner-centred, competency-based, and technology-enhanced education. Broadly defined, learning technologies are digital tools, platforms, and systems that support teaching, learning, and assessment. While learning environments refer to the physical, social, psychological, and digital spaces where education occurs. This study systematically reviewed the impact of learning technologies within the learning environment of medical students in Africa. Embase, Ovid, and Emcare databases were queried for relevant research articles regarding learning technologies for medical students in undergraduate medical schools in Africa. Eligible studies involved the implementation of a form of digital technology for medical students. Two independent reviewers selected appropriate literature according to specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 14 articles were identified for this review. The included studies in the review were conducted across seven African countries. The majority of studies originated from South Africa (n = 4), followed by Nigeria (n = 3) and Egypt (n = 3). Other regions represented were Uganda (n = 1), Kenya (n = 1), Zambia (n = 1), and Somaliland (n = 1). A wide variety of digital learning technologies were employed across the included studies. The most frequently used were live conferencing platforms such as Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, San Jose, CA), WizIQ (WizIQ Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India), and YouTube (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA). Multiple studies concluded that blended approaches were preferred and superior to either fully online or traditional teaching, bridging gaps between theory and practice while enhancing engagement. Learning technologies hold enormous potential to transform medical education in Africa, enhancing access, equity, and quality of training, whilst also improving the learning environment. Yet this potential remains constrained by systemic barriers, from infrastructure limitations to pedagogical gaps.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.