Obtaining a clinical laboratory science degree via distance technology

Clinical Laboratory Science, Fall 2003 by Campbell, Suzanne

In addition to tuition and fees, students enrolled in Web-enhanced courses will incur a $20 to $50 per credit hour or per course technology fee. Other costs to students may include upgrading to a computer that will meet Web-enhanced program requirements and maintaining a reliable Internet service connection. The UND requires a $500 per semester program fee. Students enrolled at UND may purchase course material on CD for $ 100 per course. As offall 2002, WSU will charge a one time on-line program application fee of $150.

Survey respondents indicated that faculty workload recording is conducted by various methods. However, the majority indicated that faculty workload is based on credit hours taught per semester and that faculty workload for the Web-enhanced courses is equal to the traditional on-campus courses. WSU provides an on-line supplemental salary which is determined by a specific dollar amount per student per credit hour. All but one of the programs that currently have a Web-enhanced option have increased the number of on-campus and/or adjunct faculty to handle the increased student enrollment.

The final questions of the survey asked program officials to compare the performance of the traditional on-campus student to the Web-enhanced student. A small number of the respondents indicated that these questions were difficult to answer as they felt that these groups of students were entirely different. The on-campus student is the traditional, recent high school graduate with little or no work experience in the clinical laboratory. The Web-enhanced student is older, more committed to obtaining a degree, and often has work experience as a phlebotomist, clinical laboratory assistant, or CLT/MLT. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents believe that the majority of the students enrolled via a Web-enhanced course perform better than the on-campus students. However, attrition rates are higher in the first or second semester for the Web-enhanced students. The UND, WSSU, and the UAMS indicated that their graduates of distance education programs scored higher on a national certification exam. Barton County Community College (BCCC), along with UND, WSSU, and UAMS responded that the level of employability of graduates of the distance education program format equals that of the on-campus graduate.

Because 50% of the survey respondents indicated that their programs are still in the first one to two years of offering the on-line format, there are not enough data at this point to provide specific statistics regarding on-campus versus online student academic performance, laboratory performance, certification examination performance, and average time of on-line program completion. This author would propose that a follow up study of these on-line programs in the year 2007 would allow for more specific data regarding on-campus versus on-line overall student performance.

SUMMARY

There are a handful of CLT/MLT and CLS/MT programs that are leading the future trend of distance education via the Web and distance technology. With the advent of Web-enhanced learning and the severe clinical laboratory professional shortage, initiating a Web-enhanced program format at SCCC is feasible. Preliminary data indicate that there is an initial cost to the institution to implement the Web-enhanced format but that student enrollment increases offset this expense and make this a viable option. Providing degree options for laboratory personnel via distance education is important to students and current clinical laboratory employees who desire an advanced degree but cannot terminate their employment or relocate. Graduates of the Web-enhanced programs perform at the same level as, or better than, on-campus graduates on national certification exams and with regard to their entry level laboratory competencies.