Effectiveness of online instruction in the radiologic sciences.

Background: Online courses are becoming increasingly common in all academic disciplines and many studies have indicated that there is no significant difference in student outcomes between the 2 instructional methods or, more recently, that online instruction is superior. However, because course content and expectations about mastery of material vary, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of online courses in different academic disciplines and settings, including radiologic technology.

Objective: To examine the instructional effectiveness of 2 online radiologic science courses that were converted from a face-to-face instruction format.

Methods: Archival data were gathered from a sample of convenience (N = 317) to compare 2 years of performance indicators for each course and format. This study also compared course formats in terms of national certification exam results.

Results: The results regarding which delivery type performed better were mixed. However, the national certification exam scores for the patient care section were higher for students who completed face-to-face instruction than for those who had online instruction.