Educational environment and its relation to academic performance as perceived by medical students in University of Khartoum. A cross Sectional Study, Sudan, 2020

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Purpose: to assess students' perception of educational environment and to evaluate the difference in perception related to academic performance and demographic characteristics in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, 2020. Method: The authors performed an observational analytical cross-sectional study at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, using a validated structured closed-ended self -administered questionnaire; the Dundee Ready Educational environment measurement (DREEM). They included all students registered in the faculty for the academic year 2020-2021 except the first semester students. They used proportionate stratified sampling to divide students into strata and sub-strata based on batch number and sex, respectively. Then, they selected students proportionately from each substrata using simple random sampling. Results: out of 405 randomly selected students, 341 (84.2%) filled the questionnaire. The mean total DREEM score was (104.48/200), indicating a positive perception of the learning environment. This, with only student's perception of atmosphere subscale showing negative results. Test results showed a significant difference between different student's age groups, academic phases and batches in regards to their perception of atmosphere (p-value 0.023, 0.001, 0.013 respectively). Regarding residence, a significant difference was found in total DREEM scores, with students residing in university dormitories having a more positive perception. Test results showed no significant difference in student's perception of educational environment in all DREEM subscales between achievers and underachievers. Conclusion: although the overall perception of educational environment was more positive than negative, the study highlighted various areas needing special attention. Theauthors believe that both faculty administration and students must work together to deliver tangible improvement in all aspects of educational environment.