Abstract

Our study compared the performance of students enrolled in a graduate-level introductory biostatistics course in an online versus a traditional in-person learning environment at a school of public health in the United States. We extracted data for students enrolled in the course online and in person from 2013 to 2018. We compared average quiz and final exam scores between students in the two learning environments adjusting for demographic characteristics and prior academic performance using linear mixed models. Data were available for 1461 (83.1%) students learning online and 298 (16.9%) students learning in person. After adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, age, quantitative GRE score, undergraduate GPA, and math refresher score, we found quiz scores for students learning online were about 2.5% lower than those for students learning in person, on average, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 4.9% lower to 0.02% higher. Differential performance was even closer to equality for the final exam where scores for students learning online were about 0.9% higher with a 95% confidence interval ranging from a 3.9% reduction to 5.8% improvement. These estimates suggest comparable student performance can be achieved in a graduate-level introductory biostatistics course among students learning online and in person. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

摘要

我们的研究比较了在美国公共卫生学院在线与传统面对面学习环境中注册研究生级生物统计学入门课程的学生的表现。我们提取了 2013 年至 2018 年在线和亲自参加课程的学生的数据。我们比较了两种学习环境中学生的平均测验和期末考试成绩，并使用线性混合模型调整了人口特征和先前的学业成绩。1461 (83.1%) 名在线学习的学生和 298 (16.9%) 名亲自学习的学生的数据可用。在调整性别、种族/民族、年龄、定量 GRE 分数、本科 GPA 和数学复习分数后，我们发现在线学习的学生的测验分数比亲自学习的学生低约 2.5%，平均而言，95% 的置信区间从低 4.9% 到高 0.02%。期末考试的差异表现甚至更接近平等，在线学习的学生的分数高出约 0.9%，95% 的置信区间从降低 3.9% 到提高 5.8%。这些估计表明，在线学习和亲自学习的学生可以在研究生级别的介绍性生物统计学课程中获得可比的学生表现。本文的补充材料可在线获取。这些估计表明，在线学习和亲自学习的学生可以在研究生级别的介绍性生物统计学课程中获得可比的学生表现。本文的补充材料可在线获取。这些估计表明，在线学习和亲自学习的学生可以在研究生级别的介绍性生物统计学课程中获得可比的学生表现。本文的补充材料可在线获取。