Background: The educational environment includes any factors that can affect or play a role in the learning process, for instance, instructors, buildings, infrastructure, methods of instruction, background of students (academic or social), and interaction among students and between students and instructors and administrators. The present study aimed to determine the medical students' perception of the educational environment.
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a newly developed medical school in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, named College of the Medicine University of Bisha.
Results: According to the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM), the interpretation of the total scores (129) is more positive than negative, but students' social self-perception is not so good. The mean scores in the five domains are statistically significant, but the difference between the domains' means is not substantial.
Conclusion: The students' attitudes and perception toward their educational environment in the form of students' perception of learning, students' perception of course organizers, students' academic self-perception, students' perception of educational atmosphere, and DREEM as a whole is positive, whereas students' social self-perception is not so gratifying.
Key words: DREEM, educational, environment, perception, atmosphere
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