Dual format course design: neuroanatomy and neurophysiology for adult learners

Adult learners require alternative learning opportunities to enable them to work and still be able to upgrade their education. This dual format course, combining online and face-to-face components, was developed to meet the need of students to complete a prerequisite undergraduate level neuroanatomy and neurophysiology course while attending a program that included fly-in weekends (seven) and online instruction (15 weeks). A combination of online lectures and on-campus lectures were used to teach pre-requisite neuroanatomy and neurophysiology course topics. The article presents the teaching material division between online and on-campus lectures and presentation of data collected. Survey data collected included student preferred: online media presentation, online activities developed to facilitate learning of the online material, online case study discussion, and testing formats. Students also were asked to comment on whether the class should move to a 100% online format and what their concerns would be moving to an all online format. Additional qualitative data on student input related to the course, adult learning and the learning environment will be presented. Blackboard data include: student daily access patterns, media and documents access and download patterns, and case study participation. Additionally, descriptive statistics from in class quizzes versus online quizzes includes: student patterns of test taking in an unlimited retake environment, scores on retakes and final scores (highest of retakes), in-class quiz scores, and comparison of comprehensive final exam scores from online versus face-to-face lecture material and testing. Findings provide valuable information for online course formatting, revisions and additional course development.