rahele sarikhani

Development of new virtual technologies has evolved teaching-learning process. As for the technologies, it can be refered to the use of virtual social networks in education. The current study aimed at exploring the effect of using virtual social networks on nursing students’ English learning.
The current study employed pretest-posttest plan with control group. The research population consisted of all nursing students of Malayer nursing school, Malayer, Iran, in 2015-2016, among which 30 students were selected by available sampling method, and then, randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. Instruments used in the research consisted of learning tests (pretest with 0.87 reliability and posttest with 0.89 via test-retest and confirmation of formal validity by English teachers as experts). Paired t test was employed to analyze data by SPSS version 18.
The research findings showed that the learning level of students who learned English via virtual social networks was more than that of students who learned it traditionally (t = 14.30 and plusmn; 2.48, P = 0.001).
Given the effect of virtual social networks on nursing students’ English learning, it is recommended to use this teaching technique in the teaching-learning process of medical education.

Because of approaches to learning in every place and at any time, ubiquitous learning with knowledge of the context and framework, and due to the development of wireless technologies and sensors, the learning process has changed. Mobile learning and ubiquitous learning as models of e-learning that refer to the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills through wireless technologies. The effectiveness of e-learning and its new methods including mobile learning and ubiquitous learning are in need of attention to the approaches and theories of e-learning, because by employing e-learning methods, we can find solutions for teaching and learning that would meet the needs of today's education and training. In recent years, e-learning researchers have found that the development of wireless communications and sensor technology has changed the research issues of e-learning to mobile learning and then, it has changed mobile learning to ubiquitous learning.

The Modern Electronic Technologies have had a deep impact on traditional methods of education and brought forth new methods for effective education. Electronic portfolio is one of the newest methods of teaching. Therefore, the purpose of the present research was to study the impact of using e-portfolio on Nursing Student's Learning in Physiology Course.
The design of the study was a pre-test/post-test one with an experimental group and a control group. The population of the study included all Nursing students of Nursing Faculty of Malayer city in the academic year 2014-15. The sample of the study was selected using available sampling and included 30 students who were placed in an experimental group (n = 15) and a control group (n = 15). The instrument used in this study was a learning test of basic Physiology Course developed by the researcher himself; the face validity of the test was judged by experts of subject and the pre-test and post-test method showed that the reliability of the test is, respectively 0.78 & 0.81. In order to collect data, at first, Pre-test learning were taken from experimental and control groups. Then, the control group, educational content related to physiology course was instructed through traditional methods and experimental group, the same content were instructed through e-portfolio method (with Use google chrome) during one academic semester. Finally, Learning post-test were taken from both groups. The obtained data were analyzed through the SPSS software and an independent t-test used to analyze the data.
The results of the study demonstrated that Using E-Portfolio method on increase in the amount of learning in nursing students of experimental group (t:10.38, P:.001).
According to the results and effectiveness in the use of electronic portfolio in the teaching-learning process in the physiology course, recommended the use of this electronic technology in nursing education and consequently medical education.

The use of electronic technologies in teaching-learning process has become the integral part of education. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of using electronic portfolio on self-regulation strategies of nursing students in the physiology course.
This paper is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population consisted of all students of the nursing school of Malayer City in 2014-15 academic years. Thirty students were selected by means of convenient sampling method, and then randomly assigned into control and experimental groups. In order to measure self-regulated learning strategies, Pintrich and De Groot’s self-regulated learning strategies questionnaire whose validity and reliability was confirmed in previous studies was used. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics (independent t-test).
Findings showed the improvement of self-regulation in the experimental group who learned the physiology course through electronic portfolio, as opposed to the control group who received routine teachings (t=4.58, p=0.001).
Given the findings of the present study and effectiveness of using electronic portfolio in improving students’ self-regulation in the physiology course, it is recommended to implement this electronic technology in medical education.

The use of modern virtual technologies in the process of teaching-learning is inevitable. One example is the use of virtual social networks in education. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of social networking on nursing students’ academic achievement and retention in learning English.
The pretest-posttest design with a control group was used in this quasi-experimental research. Research population consisted of all of the nursing students (n=70) of Malayer nursing school in 2015-16 academic years, 30 of whom were selected using convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. Independent paired sample test was used to analyze the data.
Findings showed that the rates of academic achievement (t=5.14, p=0.001) and retention (t=4.36, p=0.001) of the students who learned English through social networks were higher than the rates of academic achievement (t=0.768, p=0.537) and retention (t=0.747, p= 0.817) of the students who learned the language with traditional methods.
Due to the impact of virtual social networks on nursing students’ academic achievement and retention in learning English, it is recommended that this method should be used more in the teaching-learning process of medical education.

This study intends to examine the extraneous cognitive load within instruction that it had been designed building upon Merrill's model and conducted by multimedia and traditional methods in a biology course. This study was a practical research and also the quasi-experimental research methodology had been utilized. The research statistical population was the whole of the senior high school students in Malayer city. Research sampling was selected via convenience sampling and then they categorized into control and experimental groups. The experimental group instructed through independent variable (instructional multimedia according to Merrill's instructional design model) and the designed biology content based on Merrill's instructional design model instructed to the control group. Likewise, Brunken, Plass and Leutner questionnaire of extraneous cognitive load assessment with the reliability of 0.83 was applied to gathering data. The result showed that extraneous cognitive load in the instruction of biology course, which was designed according to Merrill's model, in traditional method is lower than multimedia method.

Recent advances in information and communication technology and wireless technologies, have transformed e-learning into mobile learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate human, pedagogical, management and leadership, technological, economic and attitudinal factors as obstacles to implementation of mobile learning in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences.
This study was an applied descriptive-survey. The study population included all faculty members (n=300) of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in 2015, of whom 130 were selected through random sampling and Morgan table. Data collection tool was a researcher-made obstacles to implementation of mobile learning in medical education questionnaire whose face validity was confirmed by ICT experts and its reliability was verified by Cronbach’s alpha which was 0.83. The collected data were analyzed using one sample t-test.
Findings showed that all of the six factors namely human (19.13±0.31) out of 25 points, pedagogical (15.86±0.20) and leadership and management (15.85±0.43) out of 20 points, technological (18.84±0.67) out of 25 points, economic (12.77±0.28) and attitudinal (12.51±0.46) out of 15 points were considered the obstacles to implementation of mobile learning in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (p=0.001).
Results indicated that in order to establish mobile learning in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, the obstacles including human, pedagogical, management and leadership, technological, economic and attitudinal factors should be removed.

Development of new technologies including multimedia in teaching has revolutionized the educational process. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of multimedia education on learning and retention in the physiology course for the students of anesthesiology at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. In this study, the pretest-posttest design with a control group was used. The population of this study consisted of all students of Anesthesiology at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, who were selected using convenience sampling method. The total sample size included 57 students in two classes of 29 and 28 students. The instruments used in this study were a pre-test with the reliability of 0.90, a post-test with the reliability of 0.88, a self-made retention test with the reliability of 0.88, and a self-made multi-media course with the reliability of 0.83. The face and content validity of all these instruments were approved by the experts. The independent T-test and the Levine test were used to analyze the collected data. The findings showed that: 1) the students undergoing multimedia teaching were superior to those with traditional methods (Levin test = 0.968 and p<0.001) 2) the retention rate of students who have been trained through multimedia techniques was higher than that of the students who underwent traditional methods (Levin test = 0.429 and p<0.001). Due to the impact of multimedia on learning and retention of the students, it seems that this method is useful in medical universities.

Creativity is an ideal characteristic of humans that school chiefs need to be stricter in its teaching or educating. Teaching creativity or in other words nurturing creative minds is known to be one of the most fundamental goals and an integral element of the education system in today’s world. This research was conducted in order to find out the conformity degree of the second grade of elementary school’s science and experimental book with creativity components based on Guilford and Bicards’ view and also analysis of the contents, activities, and the experiments and high levels of Bloom’s Cognitive domain. This research used " quantitative content analysis". After specifying the desired components, Bickards and Guilford views were applied as the research framework and William Romey’s technique to analyze the content and the pictures of the book was also employed. Besides the content, activities and experiments of the book were analyzed according to Bloom’s cognitive domain levels. Statistical population of this research includes science and experimental books of elementary course. The results of the research indicated that 10% of the content, activities and experiments are within the Bloom’s cognitive high levels. Also inclusion coefficient of the content with creativity components was 23% and of the pictures was 31%. This research indicated that the number of activities and experiments of the book were very few within Bloom’s cognitive high levels. Also, the investigated book needs revision and fundamental editions in terms of the creativity components, especially when it comes to the content of units and the pictures.