Table 3.
Qualitative content analysis—discussed topics. Qualitative content analysis of 10% of posts was used to classify posts. The evolved coding scheme was then applied to the remaining 90% of posts and supplemented to accommodate all posts. Categories, subcategories, and an anchoring example are depicted here.
| Categories and subcategories | Anchoring example | |
| Nonstudy-related organization | ||
| Housing | Hi hi! Has anyone a room available from Jan/Feb onwards? Or knows someone? [...] | |
| Jobs or free time activities | Hi everyone! I’m looking for a hands-on medicine related job that can be done in addition to the studies—does anybody know anything in this direction? | |
| Study-related organization | ||
| General organization | Where do (most) lectures and courses take place? | |
| Course or exam or clerkship specific information | Hi, could someone post where the biology course tomorrow at 9 o’clock takes place? | |
| Problems and issues | I cannot login into my account on mecum-online.de. Does anybody experience similar problems? | |
| Course swapping | I need a partner to swap my biochemistry seminar at 12:30-14:00, I need the earlier one. Thanks | |
| Subject matter | ||
| Tips or recommendations | Has anyone studied with the online Thieme learning program for the Biology exam and can tell me if it makes sense? | |
| Learning strategies | Is it true that if you buy the Prometheus [Anatomy] Atlas, you don’t need any other book? | |
| Content specific info | Hey people, has anyone discovered the solution for OIN Question 1? | |
| Sharing of material | Hi! Does anyone have the former Biochemistry II exam sheets at hand and could send me the solutions [...] | |
| Notifications or advertisements | ||
| Study related | Come over to our MentoRing Fest! [...] | |
| Nonstudy related | You want a break of all the biochemistry stress and would like to party? Then you should join [Facebook event link] | |
| Other | ||
| Meta-organization | [Facebook group link] for all students that are in Prof. Franks D1 [course] [...] | |
| Live ticker | Is someone right now in the reading hall and can tell me if there is space available? Somehow every [other] place is packed. | |
| Lost and found | Has someone found a white cotton cap with a white pompon at the uni? Maybe in the physiology EEG course room?! Is being heavily missed! | |
| Social networking | I’m also curious. Who of you is also a little bit older and what kind of schooling did you do [before you enrolled in medical school]? | |