| Summary: | Purpose: To determine clinicians' preference for types of tutorial participation and their subsequent tutorial participation and performance.
Methods: Part-time online students undertaking an introductory postgraduate unit of study in clinical epidemiology were offered different tutorial options across semesters.
Results: 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.
Conclusions: 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.
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