Tutorial options for clinicians undertaking postgraduate degrees online.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. To determine clinicians' preference for types of tutorial participation and their subsequent tutorial participation and performance. Part-time online students undertaking an introductory postgraduate unit of study in clinical epidemiology were offered different tutorial options across semesters. Ungraded asynchronous online discussions were poorly attended with only 118/186 (63%) posting at least once across 10 tutorials. Allocating a 1% participation mark each week and allowing students to complete tutorial tasks individually increased participation with 148/190 (78%) completing at least 8 out of 10 tutorials. Moreover, the final assignment mark distribution lost the tail of poorly performing students. In semesters when two tutorial options were offered, 192/200 (96%) chose to work alone over asynchronous online discussion and 162/190 (85%) chose to work alone over intensive face-to-face workshops. Even when students self-selected to join graded asynchronous online discussion, only 2/8 (25%) completed at least 8 out of 10 tutorials. In students who selected to attend intensive workshops, both participation and final assignment grade were better than that observed in other students. The majority of clinicians studying online chose to work individually. Allowing students to work alone and awarding participation marks appeared to improve both participation and knowledge attainment.