INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) ON THE POSTGRADUATE IMMUNOLOGY EDUCATION. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE ONLINE COURSE ``INTRODUCTION TO FLOW CYTOMETRY``

SCHIERLOH P; GALASSI N; CANALEJO K; FELIPPO M; RIERA N

Los Cocos

Congreso; LXI Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología; 2013

Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología (SAI)

ICTs has irreversibly transformed teaching/learnig, not only to facilitate the specific tasks of teachers and students but also to change the very context of the educational process. The latter is so remarkable that it has lead to rethinking roles that each actors (teacher and student) play in the process. Through the analysis of a test case (a course of "Introduction to flow cytometry") we intend to account for the impact of ICT on different quality/ accessibility indicators. The study design is based on the comparison of data from six successive cohorts of students (n=245): three on a personal attendance course and three on an online course. It is important to note that both the program content as the teaching staff were the same in the two formats. We verified an increase in enrollment of 160% as a result of the on-line option. It was accompanied by a marked expansion of geographic outreach (p 0.01, Chi2 test). Similarly, an increase in the diversity of the students´ professional profile was also observed. In the attendance mode, the majority were PhD students while in the online mode, the proportion of MDs and technical staff of clinical diagnostics labs increased significantly (p 0.01, Chi2 test). Next, regarding educational quality, we verified an enhancement in the student-teacher and student-student feedback in the online mode. This was facilitated by a web based tool (the ?discussion forum? blog) with the possibility of productive sharing of information, not only between students and teachers but also among students. Finally, regarding the learning of concepts, we did not observe differences in students? performance in tests. We are aware that one assessment criteria may not reflect the actual change in e-learning as those criteria modeled on that of the attendance mode and our learning to learn has changed. In our experience, a class room with a very restricted schedule does not constitute a better learning environment than a well implemented web based platform.