Abstract:

Statistical Methods in Clinical Trials is a course that has been offered face-to-face in traditional classroom setting in Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). As the course topics are of interest to many medical researchers with full-time employment, there is a demand to deliver the course fully online. While there is a strong technique support of online education through Sakai system in OHSU, challenges remain in adapting the course materials for the success of the course in the online environment. The challenges included: (1) online learning technology; (2) instructor-student interaction and interaction among students; (3) learning quality assessment; and (4) motivating students. We introduce a learning experience in dealing with these challenges through the design and implementation of a web-hybrid course.
In the hybrid course, all lectures are recorded pre-class and posted with lecture notes and reading materials in the Sakai system as would in a typical fully online course. However, students are required to take half of the lectures (of their individual choices) in classroom, where they first view the online lecture flashes with fellow students, and then participate the Q & A section led by the instructor. The Q & A section is designed for mutual learning: students learn the course materials while the instructor learns where in the lecture flash the students have difficulty to understand. For the remaining half of the lectures, students can opt to take them fully online. To subsidy online learning, course forum and synchronous chat are made available throughout the term. By the end of the course, students are surveyed for their experiences on the hybrid course, mainly for the comparison of classroom learning to online learning.
Our experience indicates that web-hybrid course can be an essential interim step for a smooth transition from traditional face-to-face class to a fully online course that retains the education quality while provides the flexibility of asynchronous learning to students.

Keywords:

Hybrid course, on-line teaching, mutual learning.