Students' Perception on Collaborative Learning Activity in Healthcare Education

Introduction: Collaborative Learning is an active learning strategy in which students work in small groups to optimize their teaching-learning activities. It encourages the students to help and support each other by working as a team. Collaborative Learning is important in Health Care education since health professionals work as a team to solve complex problems and serve their community. Objective: This study assessed the students’ perception of Collaborative Learning in the Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University, Sri Lanka.Methods: A total of 52 Medical undergraduates and 23 BSc Hons (Nursing) undergraduates participated in this cross-sectional descriptive study following a small group discussion. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data by using Google Forms. The questionnaire consisted of five perception statements with a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Results: The majority of the participants preferred collaborative learning over traditional teaching methods. Almost 60% of medical and nursing undergraduates strongly agreed that Collaborative Learning improves their active participation in the classroom. While 98.1% of medical undergraduates perceived that they could build strong relationships with their peers while attending Collaborative Learning, the majority of the BSc Hons (Nursing) undergraduates (>90%) strongly agreed or agreed that Collaborative Learning helps to sustain their attention throughout the lesson. Conclusion: This study revealed that the undergraduates of the Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University, Sri Lanka have a positive perception of Collaborative Learning.