Role of self-regulated learning in a communication skills curriculum: a mixed-methods study

A "communicator" is one of the competencies identified by a competent physician. As a nontechnical skill, effective communication needs to be developed and improved for medical students before graduation. Self-regulated learning contributes to learning by supporting medical students in their learning process. Self-regulated learning mainly improves the management of the self for effective study and self-evaluation. In the world of digitalization, new educational methods need to be developed and implemented to support students' self-learning skills. In this context, we conducted a communication skills curriculum in line with self-regulated learning principles and aimed to evaluate the effects of this new curriculum.

A convergent-mixed method study was selected to ensure that all relevant data were included in the results. The learning materials of the curriculum were prepared as short videos, short reading documents, and short presentations with audio records via the microlearning method. All the learning materials were shared with the students via the educational management system. Simulation and debriefing after simulation were conducted to provide useful experiences to medical students. All year 1 medical students were enrolled in the curriculum in the 2022-2023 academic year, and 149 of them volunteered to participate in the study. The Communication Skills Attitudes Scale (26 items) was used as a pretest and posttest for quantitative data. The document analysis of the learning materials, reflections of the simulated participants and semi-structured individual interviews with students were used for qualitative data. IBM SPSS Version 25 was used for quantitative data analysis, and thematic analysis was performed for qualitative analysis. Since the data were normally distributed, parametric tests were performed. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Communication skill attitudes scale scores increased after the implementation of the communication skills curriculum, with p < 0.05. Learning materials were found to be adequate with self-regulated learning principles. Eight simulated participants reflected on the program, and individual interviews were held with eight students. The simulated participants expressed that prepared students performed better in simulations than unprepared students did. Three themes emerged after the thematic analysis of individual interviews with students: (1) emotions, (2) feelings of being a doctor, and (3) interactions with simulated participants.

Our study suggests that self-regulated learning principles may support communication skills education. Microlearning appears to be a useful method for integrating self-regulated learning principles into communication skills learning materials.