title: Learning Clinical Procedures Through Internet Digital Objects: Experience of Undergraduate Students Across Clinical Faculties.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Various digital learning objects (DLOs) are available via the World Wide Web, showing the flow of clinical procedures. It is unclear to what extent these freely accessible Internet DLOs facilitate or hamper students' acquisition of clinical competence.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to understand the experience of undergraduate students across clinical disciplines-medicine, dentistry, and nursing-in using openly accessible Internet DLOs, and to investigate the role of Internet DLOs in facilitating their clinical learning.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mid-year and final-year groups were selected from each undergraduate clinical degree program of the University of Hong Kong-Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), and Bachelor of Nursing (BNurs). All students were invited to complete a questionnaire on their personal and educational backgrounds, and their experiences and views on using Internet DLOs in learning clinical procedures. The questionnaire design was informed by the findings of six focus groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 439 respondents, 97.5% (428/439) learned a variety of clinical procedures through Internet DLOs. Most nursing students (107/122, 87.7%) learned preventive measures through Internet DLOs, with a lower percentage of medical students (99/215, 46.0%) and dental students (43/96, 45%) having learned them this way (both P<.001). Three-quarters (341/439, 77.7%) of students accessed DLOs through public search engines, whereas 93.2% (409/439) accessed them by watching YouTube videos. Students often shared DLOs with classmates (277/435, 63.7%), but rarely discussed them with teachers (54/436, 12.4%). The accuracy, usefulness, and importance of Internet DLOs were rated as 6.85 (SD 1.48), 7.27 (SD 1.53), and 7.13 (SD 1.72), respectively, out of a high score of 10.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-exploration of DLOs in the unrestricted Internet environment is extremely common among current e-generation learners and was regarded by students across clinical faculties as an important supplement to their formal learning in the planned curriculum. This trend calls for a transformation of the educator's role from dispensing knowledge to guidance and support.
authors.affiliation: The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Dentistry, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong).
authors.forename: Tse Yan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7483-8891
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9930-2476
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Kin
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1254-2398
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Christine Shuk Kwan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8322-0217
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Tse
authors.forename: Ying Yee
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8513-8866
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chan
keywords: clinical skills; dentistry; distance learning; medicine; nursing