Department of Clinical Research and Leadership, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2100 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Rm 352, Washington, DC, 20037-3202, USA.
Department of Clinical Research and Leadership, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2000 W Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Rm 236, Washington, DC, 20006, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2018 Oct 20;18(1):240. doi: 10.1186/s12909-018-1343-7.
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.
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.
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.
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.
医疗专业教育课程正在经历巨大的变革，包括越来越多地使用在线和强化课程，或减少课程时间。尽管在线和强化课程模式作为独立的设计有越来越多的证据，但在医疗专业教育中，关于在线和强化课程模式的文献却很少。本研究的目的是比较同等研究生健康科学课程的学期制（15 周）和强化制（7 周）在线课程模式的学生学习成果（期末成绩和课程评估评分）。
本回顾性观察研究比较了美国一所大型城市大学三个研究生健康科学课程中注册学生的满意度和表现评分。使用描述性统计、卡方分析和独立 t 检验来描述学生样本，并确定学生满意度和表现的差异。
研究结果表明，在四个适用的期末学生课程评估项目上（p 值范围为 0.127 至 1.00），学期制和强化制课程模式之间没有显著差异。同样，期末考试和期末考试成绩的学生表现评分也没有显著差异（p 值分别为 0.35 和 0.690）。
本研究的结果表明，7 周和 15 周的在线课程在学生满意度和学习成果方面可能同样有效。虽然需要进一步研究，但学术课程应考虑将强化在线课程模式作为学期制在线课程模式的替代方案。
