Comparing student outcomes in traditional vs intensive, online graduate programs in health professional education

Autor: Paige L. McDonald, Daniela Drago, Karen S. Schlumpf, Joan T. Butler, Kenneth Harwood
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Program evaluation
Students
Health Occupations
Educational measurement
education
lcsh:Medicine
Computer-Assisted Instruction
Personal Satisfaction
Education
Education
Distance
Schools
Health Occupations
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Education
graduate
ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION
Humans
030212 general & internal medicine
Curriculum
Retrospective Studies
lcsh:LC8-6691
Internet
Medical education
lcsh:Special aspects of education
Descriptive statistics
business.industry
Teaching
lcsh:R
05 social sciences
050301 education
General Medicine
Course evaluation
District of Columbia
Education
Public Health Professional
Educational Status
Education
professional
Observational study
The Internet
Educational Measurement
business
Psychology
0503 education
Program Evaluation
Research Article
Zdroj: BMC Medical Education
BMC Medical Education, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2018)
ISSN: 1472-6920
Popis: Background Health professions’ education programs are undergoing enormous changes, including increasing use of online and intensive, or time reduced, courses. Although evidence is mounting for online and intensive course formats as separate designs, literature investigating online and intensive formats in health professional education is lacking. The purpose of the study was to compare student outcomes (final grades and course evaluation ratings) for equivalent courses in semester long (15-week) versus intensive (7-week) online formats in graduate health sciences courses. Methods This retrospective, observational study compared satisfaction and performance scores of students enrolled in three graduate health sciences programs in a large, urban US university. Descriptive statistics, chi square analysis, and independent t-tests were used to describe student samples and determine differences in student satisfaction and performance. Results The results demonstrated no significant differences for four applicable items on the final student course evaluations (p values range from 0.127 to 1.00) between semester long and intensive course formats. Similarly, student performance scores for final assignment and final grades showed no significant differences (p = 0.35 and 0.690 respectively) between semester long and intensive course formats. Conclusion Findings from this study suggest that 7-week and 15-week online courses can be equally effective with regard to student satisfaction and performance outcomes. While further study is recommended, academic programs should consider intensive online course formats as an alternative to semester long online course formats.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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