Computer Literacy and Attitudes towards eLearning among Sri Lankan Medical Students

E-learning which is gaining popularity among medical faculties in Sri Lanka requires access to computers and considerable knowledge on information technology. The aim of this study was to assess the computer literacy and attitudes towards e-learning among second year medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo (n=138) using a self administered, anonymous questionnaire.Results showed that 93.5% of students owned a computer and 95% of them had internet connection. Use of Microsoft Office applications was high (90%), along with online communication tools (73.5%). Using ICT for educational purposes was low (51.7%). Use of popular Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook (89.1%), Wikipedia (87.6%), and YouTube (74.4%) was high. There was a significant difference between gender in the use of blogs (P<0.01), and Twitter (P<0.01) with male students using these more. Majority of students (65.7%) spent less time on their computer for learning purposes.Commonly accessed online learning materials were text (82.3%) and images (81.7%). Advantages of online learning materials have been recorded as being more accessible (89.5%), descriptive (85.7%) and easily searchable (88.1%). Awareness of the faculty Moodle platform was low among students (65.7%), as well as usage (32.7%) and 94.7% of students preferred supplementary learning material to be incorporated in the Moodle platform.This study shows that medical students have access to computers and other facilities required for e-learning and a positive attitude towards e-learning. However, the use of computers for learning purposes was low. This highlights the need for guidance on the use of available resources for e-learning.