Student usage of open educational resources and social media at a Sri Lanka Medical School

Background The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Social Media (SM) for academic information seeking is common among undergraduates nowadays. There is limited data on OER and SM use for education in Sri Lanka. This study was aimed at evaluating the OER and SM use for education among the medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. Stratified random sampling was used to select students from the first year to the final year. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data. Results The study included 257 responses (response rate: 89.5%), of which 185 (72.0%) were females. The OER and SM use for educational purposes at least once a month among students was 96.1% (95%CI: 93.7–98.5%) and 88.3% (95%CI: 84.4–92.3%) respectively. There was no gender difference in OER and SM use. The main reasons for accessing OER were the availability of information at any time (36.1%) and ease of information access (31.5%). Wiki sites (84.4%) and Facebook (79.8%) were the highest accessed OER and SM platforms. The majority of students were in view that the information on wiki sites (51.4%) and results of general non-specific web searches (56.0%) were reliable. Only 33.9% of students searched information from educational and government-related sources and 18.7% had accessed e-journals. Through SM, 79.0% joined educational groups and 77.0% followed the medical-related sites, pages and people. More than one-third of students (35.8%) could not find academic information from SM due to the information overload and 31.1% mentioned that SM distracted their education. Conclusion The majority of the students used OER and SM for education; however, only a minority accessed reliable information. Students accepted information available in wiki sites and general non-specific web searchers without considering the credibility of sources. The majority of the students did not refer to e-journals. Distractions to academic work and the difficulty to access accurate information were major concerns of using SM. This study highlights the importance of improving information literacy among medical students.

Sorting Machines: Digital Technology and Categorical Inequality in Education

Existing scholarship suggests that schools do the work of social stratification by functioning as “sorting machines,” or institutions that determine which populations of students are provided educational resources needed to help them get ahead. We build on this theory of social reproduction by extending it to better understand how digital technology use is implicated in this process of unequal resource allocation in schools. We contend that educational resources, like digital technologies, are also sorted by schools. Drawing on scholarship from both education research and science and technology studies, we show how educational institutions have long played a role in constructing the value of technologies to different ends, by constructing hierarchies of technological activity, like “vocational” and “academic” computer use, even when strikingly similar. We then apply this lens to three areas of inquiry in education research: the use of digital technologies for instruction, school use of student data, and college admissions. Each illustrates how education scholars can view technologies as part of school sorting processes and with implications for inequality within and beyond the classroom.

Research on Online Education Curriculum Resources Sharing Based on 5G and Internet of Things

Information technology has brought great changes to China’s education. 5G technology provides a better guarantee for the sharing of curriculum resources, facing the extreme shortage of educational resources in China. The contradiction between limited educational resources and unlimited development needs of higher education has become increasingly prominent. How to effectively realize resource sharing among universities has become a problem that must be considered in the talent development of universities. In order to solve this problem, universities must improve the utilization rate of resources, maximize resource sharing, and establish a more perfect resource sharing mechanism under the background of 5G and Internet of Things. This paper analyzes the current situation of research at home and abroad, the current situation of resources development, and the application of online courses under the background of Internet of Things, thus constructing an overall framework of curriculum resource sharing mode. According to effective experiments, the offline curriculum education resource sharing and traditional resource sharing schemes in the background of 5G and Internet are compared, and the necessity and importance of applying 5G Internet of Things are verified.

Student’s Learning Profile as a Tool of Personal Learning Logistics

Increase of complexity and uncertainty as well as demand for personalization (including in education) urges universities to pay attention to educational subjectivity and its development; to transfer towards individual / collective-individual educational navigation and flexible systems of educational programs management (including formation of temporary learning groups, supply of required educational resources in due time, protocols of appraisal and mutual offset of educational results), what determines the relevance of the research. Usage of logistic approach enables to distinguish the pedagogical and management objectives of educational activity organization as well as to facilitate personalization of education. The article considers an educational profile as an instrument of personal educational logistics in digital educational environment, presents the preliminary terms “digital track”, “portfolio”, “profile”. The authors also dwell on the requirements to educational profiles development and scenarios of handling them in digital educational environment taking into account domestic and global experience of educational profiles’ implementation.