Medical students' perception of their learning environment at a Nigerian University

Background: The medical learning environment is an interactive network of factors that affect the medical student's academic progress and learning outcomes.This study was designed to assess the overall student's  perception of their learning environment, identify the weak aspects of the environment, determine the effects of age, gender year of study on  student's perception and recommend measures to further enhance students' learning experiences.Method: This is a cross-sectional study and cluster sampling technique was used to recruit respondents. The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was applied to medical students of Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, to assess the following areas; student's perception of learning, student's perception of course organizers, student's academic selfperception, student's perception of atmosphere, and student's social self-perception. Completed questionnaires were analyzed with the SPSS software, version 17.Results: 180 questionnaires were analyzed. The mean global score was 120.4/200 (60.2%).It was noted to be significantly higher in the second year of study than in the fifth year of study. Further analysis of the subdomain revealed that students in their second year of study had significantly higher scores in all the subdomains except in the academic self-perception. Analysis of the individual items in the DREEM questionnaire showed that the students perceived the environment as not being relaxed during lectures, and that there was poor support system for students that get stressed in their course of study.Conclusion: Students' perception of their educational environment was  positive but there was poor support system for students who get stressed. The school management needs to work on some aspects of social factors to improve on the perception and quality of teaching and learning.Key words: Medical, Students, Perception, Learning, Environmen