“We Tried Our Best to Adapt”: Rwandan Medical Students’ EdTech Experiences During COVID-19
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This case study aims to understand the changes related to the use of technology in learning at a Rwandan public medical school during the COVID-19 pandemic and how students experienced those changes. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six medical students and supplemented by analyzing school communication documents and forums such as school websites, social media platforms, and local newspapers. Using Bento’s et al. (2021) theory of socioecological resilience, as well as the theory of the digital divide, this study conceptualized a theoretical model for EdTech use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the findings, the University generally, and the medical school department specifically, attempted to provide pedagogy and infrastructural support to students by shifting their curriculum from “teaching to learning” and expanding virtual resources. However, there were discrepancies between school policies and students’ lived experiences of the learning changes. Students experienced significant access issues, particularly for the examination process, and quality issues related to social learning and medical practicalities. Student characteristics, such as year in school, and digital divide factors, such as rurality and past high school exposure, also created unequal learning experiences. Nevertheless, many benefits to the change were also highlighted, including greater individual digital exposure and global academic access. Notably, students’ behavioral resilience stood out as key to their adaptation. With these insights, I make recommendations to support the continued use of EdTech at the medical school, taking into consideration the students’ socioeconomic backgrounds while tackling access and quality barriers.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | August 2022 |
| Date modified | December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | August 2, 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Ineza, Darlene |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Rwanda |
|---|---|
| Subject | Medical education |
| Subject | COVID-19 Pandemic (2020-) |
| Subject | EdTech |
| Subject | Emergency remote learning |
| Subject | Medical students |
| Subject | Stanford Graduate School of Education International Education Policy Analysis |
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
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- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Ineza, D. (2022). “We Tried Our Best to Adapt”: Rwandan Medical Students’ EdTech Experiences During COVID-19. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/hv496rt9021
Collection
Graduate School of Education International Comparative Education Master's Monographs
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- Contact
- inezadarlene@gmail.com
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