School of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
BMC Med Educ. 2014 Feb 12;14:29. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-14-29.
Online discussions as a method of instruction are a new approach in Ethiopia. There is no previous study in the Ethiopian context that has assessed students' engagement and learning experience using this instruction method, which may offer a valuable complement to other instruction methods for intensive block teaching in a resource-limited environment. The aim of this study was to assess the value of online discussions in supporting students' engagement and interaction with their peers and teachers in a block teaching postgraduate health professionals' curriculum.
The research was conducted at Addis Ababa University College of Health Sciences, School of Medical Laboratory Sciences (SMLS), which has structured the curriculum around intensive block teaching. Between December 2011 and February 2012, two groups of full-time (N = 21) and part-time (N = 52) postgraduate students participated in online discussions as part of a Biostatistics and Research Methods module, in addition to other instructional methods. Every week, the course instructor initiated the online discussion by posting an assignment and articles with a few discussion questions. To evaluate the participants' collective learning experience, the content of the email messages generated during these online discussions was analyzed qualitatively.
A total of 702 emails were exchanged during the three week module, of which 250 emails (35.6%) were posted by full-time students and 452 emails (64.4%) by part-time Continuing Education Program (CEP) students. During the online discussion forum, students identified different statistical data analysis tools and their application for given data sets. In terms of message contents, 67% of full-time and 64% of part-time students' messages were classified as learning experiences. However, a slightly higher proportion of part-time students' posts were social messages. The majority of students in both groups reported high levels of satisfaction with their online experience.
Online discussion could be a valuable addition to face-to-face classroom teaching to improve students' engagement and interaction in an intensive block teaching postgraduate curriculum where learners are engaged in a full work load with academic studies.
在线讨论作为一种教学方法在埃塞俄比亚是一种新的方法。在埃塞俄比亚的背景下，没有之前的研究评估过学生使用这种教学方法的参与度和学习体验，这可能为资源有限环境中的强化块状教学的其他教学方法提供有价值的补充。本研究的目的是评估在线讨论在支持学生参与和与同行和教师互动方面的价值，在块状教学的研究生卫生专业人员课程中。
该研究在亚的斯亚贝巴大学健康科学学院、医学检验科学学院（SMLS）进行，该学院围绕强化块状教学组织课程。2011 年 12 月至 2012 年 2 月，两组全日制（N=21）和非全日制（N=52）研究生在生物统计学和研究方法模块中参与了在线讨论，除此之外还采用了其他教学方法。每周，课程讲师通过发布作业和带有一些讨论问题的文章来启动在线讨论。为了评估参与者的集体学习经验，对这些在线讨论期间生成的电子邮件的内容进行了定性分析。
在为期三周的模块中，共交换了 702 封电子邮件，其中 250 封（35.6%）由全日制学生发布，452 封（64.4%）由非全日制继续教育课程（CEP）学生发布。在在线讨论论坛中，学生确定了不同的统计数据分析工具及其在给定数据集上的应用。就信息内容而言，全日制学生中有 67%的信息和非全日制学生中有 64%的信息被归类为学习经验。然而，非全日制学生的帖子中有略高比例的社交信息。两组学生都报告对在线体验高度满意。
在线讨论可能是面对面课堂教学的有益补充，可以提高学生在密集块状教学研究生课程中的参与度和互动性，在这种课程中，学习者在学术研究中承担着全负荷的工作量。
