Virtual classroom helps medical education for both Chinese and foreign students.

Aims The rapid development of computer and internet technology has a strong influence over one's quality of education within different fields of study. To determine the potential benefits of introducing internet into medical school classes, a pilot study was conducted in three different Chinese medical schools. Materials and methods Seven hundred and eight medical school undergraduates, 385 dental school students and 366 foreign students were randomly recruited to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The contents included personal information, current usage of computer and internet, and attitudes towards the computerised teaching methods. Two forum groups were created using instant message software and were randomly assigned to two classes, allowing students to freely ask or discuss questions with the help of their teachers in these two virtual classrooms. Results All 1539 questionnaires were accepted and analysed. Although there were some differences between Chinese and foreign undergraduates, both group of students were highly proficient in internet usage and navigation. Overwhelmingly, 88.37% of the students owned a computer and frequently logged onto the internet. Most of them believed that the internet is a helpful adjunct to their studies and held positive attitudes towards computerised teaching. Compared to the classes that were not assigned internet forums, the two experimental classes performed significantly better on the examination. Conclusions Our results suggest that computerised teaching methods have significant potential to assist in learning for both Chinese and foreign medical undergraduates.