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Preferences versus Performances in a Hybrid Histology Course
Author(s) -
Elzie Carrie,
Embry Jennifer
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.444.2
Subject(s) - virtual microscopy , histology , medical education , significant difference , session (web analytics) , online course , multimedia , psychology , computer science , medicine , pathology , world wide web
Due to advancements and availability of technology, quality virtual histology slides are now readily accessible on‐line. While many studies have looked at the efficacy of using online technology to teach histology, to our knowledge, no one has done a hybrid course of both on‐line and live sessions. Thus it was our goal to directly assess the effect of learning from virtual versus live histology lecture and labs within single students and compare their performances to self‐reported learning preferences. A graduate histology class was designed in which every other session was taught either completely on‐line or live (both lecture and lab). At the beginning of the course, students were surveyed on their experience and bias with learning histology and technology. Questions from two exams were categorized based on their delivery (live and virtual) and performance on each was analyzed for each student who served as their own control. Overall feedback of the course was also collected. While 82% of students surveyed felt that a microscope was required to learn histology, and 75% felt like live sessions would be more conducive to learning, there was no significant difference on exam performance of questions despite the delivery. Students averaged 71% on questions related to material taught live compared to 78% on virtually taught material (p=0.33). The average difference of individual performance between live and virtual questions was 0.08. There was no difference between males and females. Despite initial hesitation about the efficacy of teaching a traditionally laboratory course virtually, the data equivocally shows that there is no hindrance to learning histology when the material is presented virtually. Further, individual students are able to adapt to both delivery styles within a single course. Support or Funding Information none This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .