Table 1 shows the demographic information of the cases. A total number of 109 students participated in this study, where 59% were female and 41% were male. In addition, 79% of cases were single and 21% were married. Regarding smartphone type, 77%, 18%, 3% and 2% of cases had Android, iPhone, Windows phone and BlackBerry smart phones.

Table 2 shows the items associated with the use of smartphone for learning purposes. According to the table, 79% of cases use their smartphone to search contents associated with their courses and 86% of them use it to search education-related bulletins. Moreover, 89% of cases use it to send emails to classmates and university staff, 78% of cases use it to study the text of classroom lectures, 82% use it to view the images of classroom lectures and 94% use it to view educational videos. Furthermore, 86% of cases use their smartphone to search Library resources and the content of texts, 96% of them use it and the Internet to search required educational texts, 94% use it to share their notes with classmates, 94% use it to take pictures of their work in university, 93% use it to make a video of their works in university, 92% use it for other educational purposes, not indicated in this study, and 86% of cases have dentistry or educational-related applications installed on their smartphones.

Table 3 shows the role of social media in learning. Totally, 95% of cases have access to social media through their smartphone and know it is beneficial for learning purposes. According to the cases, Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook, Instagram and other social media contribute to 50%, 26%, 7%, 5%, 2% and 11% of learning, respectively.

Which one of the following applications is frequently used by you for educational and learning purposes?
Telegram: 54(50%), WhatsApp: 28(26%), Viber: 8(7%), Facebook: 5(5%), Instagram: 2(2%), others: 12(11%)

Table 4 shows places where the cases use their smartphone more for educational purposes. According to the cases, home, different places of university, on transport (for example in bus), library, amphitheater, working times in laboratory and other places contribute to 91%, 69%, 53%, 49%, 37%, 30% and 77% of places where the cases use their smartphone.

Table 5 shows the general opinion of the cases about smartphone and its impact on learning and education. According to the table, 91% of cases believe that smartphone improves their access to the content of their courses and educational content. In addition, 88% of cases believe that smartphone assists them in having a more independent learning process. Finally, 86% of cases think that university professors should pay more attention to the use of smartphone for educational purposes.

Spearman’s correlation coefficient shows that there is a positive correlation between the use of smartphone for general purposes and the use of it for learning purposes (0.483). In other words, as a student’s use of smartphone for general purposes increases, his/her interest in using it for learning purposes significantly increases (P<0.01). In addition, there is a negative correlation between age and the use of smartphone for general purposes and between the age and the use of smartphone for learning purposes (-0.279). This means that as age increases the interest of students in the use of smartphone for general and learning purposes significantly decreases (P<0.05). Moreover, females and males as well as single and married cases were compared in terms of the use of smartphone for learning purposes using Mann-Whitney test and there was no significant difference between the groups.

Table 1: The information of the participants


Click here for Table 2: Smartphone use questions

Table 3: Role of social media in learning


Table 4


Click here for Table 5

DISCUSSION

This study showed that dentistry students widely use smartphones for learning and educating courses. Surfing websites in the Internet associated with courses is the most frequent use of smartphones followed by sharing notes with classmates, dentistry-related applications installed on smartphones and making images and videos of university works. This agrees with Ozdalga et al [6], Schulz et al [7], Gilavand et al [8], Jamal et al [9], Albrecht et al [10] and Wu et al [11] studies. In addition, 95% of cases have access to social media through their smartphones and acknowledge the beneficial role of social media in education. According to the studied cases, Telegram and WhatsApp are the most frequent used applications for learning and educational purposes, respectively. This agrees with the results of Jamal et al [9], Malka et al [13], Goyder et al [14], Tran et al [15], Khanna et al [16], Johnston et al [17], Giordano et al [18], and Anyanwu et al [19]. However, some social media, including Facebook and Twitter, are censured in Iran and can be accessed only by proxy sites. According to the cases, home, different places of university, on transport (for example in bus), library, amphitheater, working time in laboratories and other places are the most frequent places, respectively where students use their smartphone for educational activity purposes. Finally, the majority of cases believe that their smartphones have improved their access to the content of courses and educational content. In addition, they believe that their smartphones help them in having a more independent learning process. The cases believe that professors should pay more attention to the use of smartphones. This agrees with Payne et al [20], Mosa et al [21], Baheti et al [22], Ozdalga et al [6], Schulz et al [7], Gilavand et al [8], Jamal et al [9], Albrecht et al [10], Wu et al [11] and Gavali et al [23] studies.

CONCLUSION

Even though this technology has not officially been included in curriculum, the use of it is rapidly being increased in educating in medical sciences due to its various advantages and capabilities in the learning process. It provides dentistry students with a proper opportunity for adopting different learning methods and may completely remove the monopoly of traditional education methods, i.e. books and lectures, in the near future. However, the combined use of traditional approaches and e-learning methods, including smartphones, is currently more acceptable. Many students use the course-related applications installed on their smartphone throughout their career and occupational life even after graduating from universities. Low-speed Internet and censured social media in Iran, limited software educating the use of cell phones, the possibility of transferring diseases in clinical environments by cell phones and the possibility of the disclosure of personal information of users are the most important challenges of the use of smartphone for learning purposes. It is suggested that similar studies be conducted on other academic majors in order to more accurately conclude the impact of smartphones on the promotion of the learning capability of other students.

Acknowledgements
This article is extracted from a research granted by Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Iran (Department of Education Development Center, AJUMS)