medical sciences students’ knowledge of web 2.0 tools and learning environments – a case study in west of iran universities

backgroud: web 2.0 tools and environments are a new trend in sharing information and communication. its significant characteristic is concentrating on website users′ and developers′ interaction. this study aimed to determine the knowledge of medical science university students’ about web 2.0 environments in west of iran by emphasizing on use of these environments in learning- teaching process. methods: in this descriptive study, 303 medical science university students in the west of the country selected by stratified random sampling method. a questionnaire was used to collect data which its validity confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was turned out as acceptable by cronbach alpha coefficient (0.896). descriptive statistical indexes such as mean, medium, standard deviation, frequency, simple frequency were used to analyze and classify the data and analytical statistics including chi square test and phi and v-cramer coefficient were used to test the hypotheses. findings: the knowledge score of most respondents (58.4%) on web 2.0 tools was low or very low and 26.7% of them had medium score of knowledge and skill in this area. there was a significant difference between the knowledge score of male and female respondents on web 2.0.there was a significant relationship between knowledge score and average of respondents, but it was not significant with their educational level. conclusion: the students′ knowledge of web 2.0 tools and environments was not desirable. a comprehensive educational plan is necessary to improve the knowledge of students for these new high technologies in order to encourage learners to use them in learning process.