Trends of mobile technology-enhanced medical education: A review of journal publications from 1998 to 2016

The present study systematically reviewed the publications in journals from 1998 to 2016, examining the application domains, subjects, adopted learning strategies, research issues and the findings of mobile technology-assisted medical education. The results indicated that the applications of mobile technology in medical education and training have not yet gained popularity. Although there were increasing number of mobile learning studies in medical education and the recent research outcomes have become more diverse, mobile learning is mainly applied to medical education for improving learners' knowledge comprehension and skills rather than facilitating their higher order thinking (e.g. problem solving or critical thinking). On the other hand, it is found that the number of studies using an experimental design increased greatly in recent years. Most studies adopted questionnaire surveys to examine learners' cognitive performance and concepts, while learning behaviours were seldom analysed. Accordingly, several research issues of mobile medical education are proposed.