AN ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF "WECHAT + MICRO-COURSES" IN DIFFERENT MAJORS OF MEDICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
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An Analysis of The Application of “WeChat + Micro-
Courses” In Different Majors of Medical University
Students
Lu Liu
Nanjing Medical University
Qiurun Yu
Nanjing Medical University
Qiuqin Tang
Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University
Wei Wu ( wwu@njmu.edu.cn )
Nanjing Medical University
Research Article
Keywords: online education, WeChat, micro-courses, undergraduate, new media
Posted Date: September 21st, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-849351/v1
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Read Full License
Page 1/13Abstract
Background: WeChat and micro-courses have become important tools for improving medical education.
However, most research just focused on one of them, and investigations about “WeChat + micro-courses”
teaching mode were still lacking.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate medical students’ use of WeChat and micro-courses
and to analyze the possibility of “WeChat + micro-courses” teaching mode.
Methods: This investigation was conducted among 534 full-time undergraduates in Nanjing Medical
University. A self-reported questionnaire was adopted to collect data. Data were entered and checked with
EpiData 3.0 and were analyzed with STATA 13.
Results: 534 participants successfully completed the questionnaires. Most students in all specialties
used WeChat. More students in preventive medicine subscribed to OAs related to other majors (χ2 = 28.49,
P < 0.01). In three majors, almost 80% of students spent less than 10 minutes or 10-30 minutes browsing
OA articles every day. As for micro-courses, using frequency in biostatistics was significantly higher than
that in preventive medicine and hygienic analysis and detection (χ2 = 16.68, P < 0.01). Plenty of students
complained about the lack of interactions while learning with micro-courses.
Conclusions: It was promising to apply “WeChat + micro-courses” mode in medical education.
Introduction
Background
With the advent of the Internet era, online education was a hot topic. Especially during the COVID-19
epidemic, absence of face-to-face classes pushed online education towards a leading position. In this
period online education were widely used and presented great potential for application [1]. Various
platforms were applied into medical education, such as medical discussion forum [2][3], Twitter [4][5],
Facebook [6], and YouTube [7]. In China, both WeChat and micro-courses showed broad application
prospects in medical education [8][9][10].
WeChat, a Chinese social media, released by Tencent in 2011. It was one of the most favorable
applications in the world, with over 1 billion active users in 2020. WeChat had many functions: (a).
Various files could be shared in group chats at any time and any place. (b). With the function called
“Moments”, users could build their own timeline and post updates for selected contacts. In their
“Moments”, teachers could share materials related to courses, such as thoughts, Web links and
recommended applications. (c). WeChat Official Account (OA) Platform made it feasible to deliver
effective information for more target users. After students subscribed the OA built by teachers, they could
receive articles posted by teachers in this OA. Consequently, it attracted much attention of researchers to
Page 2/13apply WeChat in teaching field[11]. For example, Wang Juan described actual application of WeChat in
biochemistry and cellular biology courses [12].
Micro-course, a form of microlearning, was composed of short teaching videos [9]. On mobile devices,
students could use their spare time to watch these videos repeatedly until able to grasp key points of
lectures.
Considering advantages of WeChat and micro-courses, “WeChat + micro-courses” mode was put forward
in this article. When micro-courses combined with WeChat, a free and user-friendly platform, teachers
could directly upload micro-courses in group chats or OA platforms, and students could instantly
download them. Moreover, this mode allowed students to feedback timely in group chats while watching
videos, which made up for shortages of traditional education modes. At the same time, some research
indicated the blended model of online study and face-to-face lectures produced positive outcomes[13].
Over the past few years, there were a string of research about application of WeChat and micro-courses in
medical education. For example, Furong Zeng applied WeChat in clinical problem-based learning [8], and
Murray JA captured the use and future of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the biomedical
sciences [14]. However, research about application of alliance between WeChat and micro-courses were
limited, and there is still lack of analysis in different majors to guide this mode.
Aim
The aim of this study was to describe medical students’ use of WeChat and micro-courses, to analyze the
possibility of “WeChat + micro-courses” teaching mode, and to provide guidance for applying “WeChat +
micro-courses” mode in medical education.
Methods
The survey was conducted in 534 full-time undergraduates in School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical
University. They came from five (or four) grades in three majors, including preventive medicine (a five-year
medical specialty), hygienic analysis and detection (a four-year science specialty) and biostatistics (a
four-year science specialty). A total of 397 students majored in preventive medicine, 78 students majored
in hygienic analysis and detection, and 59 students majored in biostatistics.
A self-reported questionnaire was adopted in this study, which included 26 questions, and it took about 5
to 10 minutes to finish it. These questions involved five parts: basic information (Q1), use of WeChat (Q2-
Q7), use of OAs (Q8-Q15), use of micro-courses (Q16-Q23) and viewpoints of “WeChat + micro-courses”
mode (Q24-Q26). 534 questionnaires were distributed to 25 classes, and then with help of teachers in
classrooms researchers recollected all of them. Responses were totally anonymous.
All data were entered and checked with EpiData 3.0. To examine differences among three different
majors, a Chi-square test was performed. A p-value of < 0.05 (two-tailed) was considered statistically
significant. The data were analyzed with STATA 13.
Page 3/13Results
Finally, 534 valid questionnaires were accepted.
The popularization of WeChat
According to the results of “Do you use WeChat?”, WeChat were used by 98.2% of students majoring in
preventive medicine, 97.4% of students majoring in hygienic analysis and detection and 96.6% of
students majoring in biostatistics.
Situation and assessments of using OAs
When asked “Which types of OAs did you subscribe to?”, most students subscribed to OAs about
academic and popular science. In preventive medicine, 79.5% of students subscribed to those OAs. In
hygienic analysis and detection, the percentage was 65.8%, and in biostatistics the percentage was 77.2%
(Fig. 1).
For the question “Is there any OA related to your major or courses?”, 94.4% of students majoring in
preventive medicine answered “Yes”, 85.5% of students majoring in hygienic analysis and detection
answered “Yes”, and 73.7% of students majoring in biostatistics also answered “Yes”. There was a
significant difference on these three groups, and the proportion of preventive medicine was higher than
other two majors (χ2 = 28.49, P < 0.01) (Table 1).
Among students majoring in preventive medicine, 80.5% of students spent less than 10 minutes or
between 10 minutes and 30 minutes browsing OA articles every day. Among students majoring in
hygienic analysis and detection, 77.6% of students did the same thing. Among students majoring in
biostatistics, 82.5% of students also spent less than 10 minutes or between 10 minutes and 30 minutes
browsing OA articles (Table 1).
After analyzing the results “What kind of OA articles do you like best?”, it could be concluded that most
answers concentrated on “multi-picture and short articles”. Among students majoring in preventive
medicine, 42.8% of them chosen “multi-picture and short articles”. Among students majoring in hygienic
analysis and detection, 38.2% of them chosen it. Among students majoring in biostatistics, it was chosen
by 38.2% of students (Fig. 2).
Situation and assessments of using micro-courses
As for the question “How often do you use micro-courses?”, in preventive medicine, 59.4% of students
used micro-courses. In hygienic analysis and detection, 62.2% of students used micro-courses. In
biostatistics, the percentage was 79.7%. Using frequency of micro-courses in biostatistics was
significantly higher than that in preventive medicine and hygienic analysis and detection (χ2 = 16.68, P <
0.01) (Table 1).
Page 4/13Additionally, through analyzing the results of “What do you think are the disadvantages of current micro-
courses? (multiple choices)”, we could find in preventive medicine, 19.6% of students chosen “Low quality
of contents”, more than half of them chosen “Lack of interactions between teachers and students”, 39.3%
of students chosen “Cumbersome using process”, 54.7% of students chosen “No concentrated time for
micro-courses”, and only 11.8% students chosen “Unreasonable performance evaluations”. At the same
time, in hygienic analysis and detection, 20.5% of students chosen “Low quality of contents”, 53.8% of
students chosen “Lack of interactions between teachers and students”, 43.6% of students chosen
“Cumbersome using process”, 73.1% of students chosen “No concentrated time for micro-courses”, and
11.5% of students chosen “Unreasonable performance evaluation”. Among the students majoring in
biostatistics, 18.6% of students chosen “Low quality of contents”, 52.5% of students chosen “Lack of
interactions between teachers and students”, 33.9% of students chosen “Cumbersome using process”,
59.3% of students chosen “No concentrated time for micro-courses”, and 20.3% of students chosen
“Unreasonable performance evaluation” (Fig. 3).
Willingness to accept “WeChat + micro-courses” Mode
As for “Are you willing to accept ‘WeChat + micro-courses’ Mode?”, 59.9% of students in preventive
medicine answered “Yes”, 58.9% of students in hygienic analysis and detection also answered “Yes”, and
66.7% of students in biostatistics were willing to accepted it (Fig. 4).
Discussion
Considering the large user basis in undergraduates, WeChat had a promising application prospect in
medical education in all specialties. Before courses started up, tutors could create a WeChat group and
asked students joined it, in which tutors could upload course materials and release learning tasks. Due to
WeChat’s powerful functions, problem-based learning (PBL) could be realized online [15].
As for situation of OAs, most students subscribed OAs about academic and popular science, which
means students would like to increase knowledge and expand horizon by reading OA articles, so it just
fitted in the needs of college students to apply OAs in medical education. But now, some students in
hygienic analysis and detection and biostatistics complained there were no OAs related to their
specialties. Perhaps it was because that students majoring in hygienic analysis and detection and
biostatistics didn’t have approaches to subscribe related OAs, or the OAs about these two majors were
still lacking. It reminded us to focus on developing related OAs and popularizing them in the ensuing
years. Based on the results, it took about 10 minutes a day to browse OA articles for plenty of students.
Meanwhile, in all specialties, most students preferred short articles with several pictures. Therefore, while
producing OA articles, the form and length of the articles should be taken into consideration. Here were
some suggestions: (a). It should take about 2 or 3 minutes to browse an OA article. (b). The outline and
about browsing time should be put at the beginning, so students could grasp the key points and decide
whether to read full text. (c). Adding pictures in OA articles could make knowledge points more interesting
and vivid.
Page 5/13As for situation of using micro-courses, using frequency of micro-courses in biostatistics was
significantly higher than that in preventive medicine and hygienic analysis and detection. As a result,
more high-quality micro-courses about these two specialties should be produced and brought into visions
of medical students. It was clear that students in all specialties were satisfied with the quality of contents
of micro-courses, but the lack of interactions between students and teachers was still a shortcoming.
Meanwhile, Richard pointed out that interactions between students and guiders were essential to enhance
their e-learning experience and satisfaction [16] Many students said they did not have enough
concentrated time for micro-courses, which might be related to heavy workload in medical universities.
These facts could provide valuable suggestions for the developments of micro-courses in the future: (a).
In WeChat groups, collaborative learning could be realized, which were positively correlates with students’
improvement in academic achievement [17]. (b). It was urgent to simplify every micro-course and make
knowledge fragmented. (c). To form an organic whole of micro-courses and classes, it was necessary to
combine fragmentary knowledge points with classes.
Finally, in all specialties, about 60% students were willing to accept “WeChat + micro-courses” teaching
mode. No matter in which specialties, it is worthwhile trying to apply “WeChat + micro-courses” in medical
education. This study had several limitations. First, samples were selected in one college and just
included three specialties. Second, the sample size was small. Third, the questionnaire was simple and
not comprehensive. Therefore, further research is needed with larger sample size and more appropriate
questionnaires. In addition, with the changes of learning environment, the use of WeChat, OAs and micro-
courses will also change. Therefore, to timely optimize “WeChat + micro-courses” mode, it is necessary to
follow up investigations.
Conclusion
“WeChat + micro-courses” mode had mass basis because no matter for WeChat, OAs, or micro-courses,
there were wide audience in medical universities. As for inadequacies of this mode, it might be improved
according to suggestions in this paper. Moreover, most students were willing to accept the mode and help
tutors to build platforms. With supports from students and continuous optimization from tutors, it was
promising to apply “WeChat + micro-courses” mode in medical education.
Abbreviations
OA: WeChat Official Account
PBL: problem-based learning
MOOCs: massive open online courses
Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Page 6/13This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Nanjing Medical University. Data used in
this work were anonymous. In this study, all methods were carried out in accordance with relevant
guidelines and regulations, and informed consent was obtained from all subjects.
Consent for publication
No individual identifiable information was available here. Informed consent was obtained from the study
participants.
Availability of data and material
The corresponding authors have full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the
integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. The raw data supporting the conclusions of
this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Funding
This work was supported by the grant of Project 2020 of the 13th Five-Year Plan of Education Science in
Jiangsu Province (D/2020/01/27), Educational Research Project of Nanjing Medical University 2019
(2019ZD003, key Project), Graduate Education and Teaching Reform Project of Nanjing Medical
University 2018 (SPOC Project), Priority Academic Program for the Development of Jiangsu Higher
Education Institutions (Public Health and Preventive Medicine), the Top-notch Academic Programs
Project of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (TAPP, PPZY2015A067), and 2019 Special Project on
Philosophy and Social Sciences in Universities (2019SJB076).
Authors' contributions
LL and WW designed the questionnaire and collected data. The collected data were checked by QT and
WW, and the collected data were analyzed by QY. LL and QY wrote the main manuscript text and prepared
Figures 1-4. The original draft was reviewed by WW and QT, and they provided modification comments.
All authors have read and approved the manuscript.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the students included in our study.
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Tables
Table 1. Basic situation of using WeChat, OAs and micro-courses.
Page 9/13Figures
Page 10/13Figure 1
The results of “Which types OAs did you subscribe to? (multiple choices)”
Page 11/13Figure 2
The results of “What kind of OA articles do you like best?”
Page 12/13Figure 3
The results of “What do you think are the disadvantages of current micro-courses? (multiple choices)”
Figure 4
The results of “Are you willing to accept ‘WeChat + micro-courses’ Mode?”
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