abstract
- Introduction: Creating learning communities has direct impact on all its members and their performance. Nowa-days, medical school students are immersed in collabo-ration networks. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the impact of the participation on a learning community in social network, particularly in the perception of medical students when finishing their participation in the class. Method: The study was performed with a sample of 80 third-year medical students in a undergraduate phys-iopathology class on a private university. A descriptive and cross-sectional study was implemented, using an instrument to assess the implementation. Results: The results show that students developed competencies such as interaction and connectivity between its members (49%), impact in learning (52%), motivation for learning (46%), and challenging activities (44%). The highest participation was registered in Facebook (64%). The images and forum participation was also used the most (71%). Conclusions: The use of learning communities favors the development of skills: analysis, multiperspective reasoning and self-directed learning, which are the bases of lifelong learning.