SUPPLEMENT ISSUE www.iioab.org | Zarifsanaiey et al. 2016 | IIOABJ | Vol. 7 | Suppl 2 | 466–471 | 466 KEY WORDS Teaching Method, Lectures, Mobile Learning, Knowledge, Backache *Corresponding Author Email: nzarifsanaee@gmail.com Published: 10 September 2016 ARTICLE A COMPARISON OF MOBILE -BASED LEARNING AND LECTURE- BASED LEARNING IN AN ADULT HEALTH CARE WORKERS COURSE Nahid Zarifsanaiey 1 , Najme Ghorbani 2 , Rita Rezaee 3* 1 Department of E-learning, Virtual School, Center of Excellence for e-Learning in Medical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IRAN 2 Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IRAN 3 Quality improvement in clinical teaching Research Center, Education Development Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, IRAN ABSTRACT Background: Development of science and technology has necessitated the development in the process of educational activities. One of these communication practices is learning via mobile electronic devices like mobile phones or tablets that are mentioned for mobile learning. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of mobile learning-based education and lecture on the knowledge of health workers in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in the field of backache. Materials and Methods: The research was semi-experimentally carried out on 142 Healthcare workers in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, who were selected via census in 2014. The samples of the study were randomly divided into control (70 subjects) and the experimental group (72 subjects). After the pre-test, the experimental group and the control group were educated by mobile learning and lecture, respectively. After 4 to 6 weeks, the students' knowledge in the field of backache was determined. Data collection tool was a questionnaire designed by the country's professional health board and approved by 5 experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient α = 0.92. Data were analyzed empl oying SPSS version 18 and independent and paired t-test. The level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: The results demonstrated that there is a significant difference between the scores of pre-test and post-test, and post-test scores in the mobile learning group was significantly higher than the lecture group (p = 0.02). The results also demonstrated that there is a positive and significant relationship between age and satisfaction in e-learning group (p <0.001). Conclusion: Due to the effectiveness of mobile learning, such method can be employed as one of the modern teaching methods. INTRODUCTION Man of the third millennium is trying to avoid the traditional model by accelerating the process of development and IT application in different parts of his life and create a new paradigm based on the requirements of the information age [1]. With the development of e-learning system, the concept of mobile learning in education systems is considered more seriously. Mobile learning involves the application of information technologies and wireless electronic devices such as mobile and laptop to create a learning process and experience independent of time and place [3 2]. This type of learning lays the ground for learning in a living, and dynamic process and decreases the cost of traditional education. Today, with the increasing number of users of mobile and portable computers and technical advances in the equipment and network expansion internet infrastructure, public reception of the electronic equipment has significantly increased [4].A study was carried out by Kumar et al.in 2007 on the Mobile-based learning (mobile learning) in India. Their study suggests that 69% of people believe that mobile phone is an effective and instant tool in their learning. Seventy two percent (72%) of them believe that mobile learning is a new opportunity and that it has a quick feedback. Kummer et al. believed that learning method with the help of mobile has temporal and spatial flexibility and is more learner centered. Therefore, we can say that the learning path is expanding from distance learning to e-learning and from e-learning to mobile learning [5]. The changing needs of the healthcare sector and medical advances, attention to the education and continuous education of graduates has made Medical Sciences more serious. On the contrary, the issue of enhancing the quality of learning in medical science has always been considered, and is becoming more important day by day. Regarding the fact that medical education around the world today strongly need to employ ICT to provide learning conditions for learners [6], in the meantime, the importance, position, and use of mobile phone has become one of the new areas of theory and research in medical education due to the accessibility and ease of its use. On the contrary, providing in-service education for staff of healthcare systems in the current era is an essential issue that needs careful planning and precision in doing so. The utilization of such education can in addition to using up administrative and personnel power, impose high costs into the system [7]. Advantages of mobile learning- based education like mobility and easy handling, flexibility, accessibility, ease of use, distance accessibility and usefulness are the things that has raised this method of education as one of the suitable solutions for in-service education. So, the use of this method in continuous education and in-service education, especially in health issues can be very effective, due to the fact that such educations play the role of health forefront in the field of health for prevention of diseases, and therefore the use of this method can be very effective in health [8-9]. Despite all the benefits mentioned-learning and mobile learning have their own limitations. According to critics, these educational methods may not be substituted with the teacher, human and emotional interactions and face-to-face relations created in the classroom, [10]. Moreover, in some studies, its efficacy has been reported less than lecture, and its application is disapproved by the