Development of shorter course models in nuclear medicine technology education

3112 Objectives: There is no denying that the student demographics have changed in higher education. Over the last decade, much focus has been given to student success and achievement within colleges and universities to address this changing demographic. A variety of newer ideas, models, and techniques have been tested and in many instances, are now considered best practices. More recently, one such theory is fewer courses at any given time. This allows the students to stay focused on fewer topics and material at any time and potentially have more academic success. Literature shows that primary benefit of reduced course lengths does increase student learning.1 When the students are allowed to focus more of their time on fewer subject at any given time, the learning and knowledge increases. Students enrolled in the 6-week compressed sections had higher success rates than those enrolled in the same courses during a 16-week semester.2 This study was an observational study of students’ perceptions based on course evaluations in a baccalaureate NMT program. Methods: Twelve students in their first professional semester of the Nuclear Medicine Technology program at an urban university awarding a baccalaureate degree were in the pilot study. During the spring semester there were five courses in the curriculum, which equated to eighteen credits. The semester is fourteen weeks long excluding the week of final exams. Two courses were identified by the faculty and program administration that could be offered in a 7-week format. The contact hours did not change between the 7-week format and the 14-week format. Students in the spring semester took at total of four courses at a time, with one of the courses being a 1-credit clinical observation. Therefore, there were three didactic courses that the students were taking at any given time. At the end of the semester, the students had completed four didactic courses and the fifth clinical observation course for a total of 5 courses and 18 credits. Course evaluations completed by the students were used at the end of the semester to determine their thoughts and perceptions on the trial format. Results: The course evaluations completed by the students were positive. Students favored having fewer courses at any given time. The students’ comments focused around the format allowed them to focus more on various topics versus dividing their time on many different subjects. The students’ perceptions were that they learned more about the various topics versus if they had to learn all of the subjects at one time. Conclusions: While limited, there is research on reduce courses during one semester1,2. This qualitative study, from the perceptions of the faculty members, demonstrates the need to look at the curriculum from a student’s perspective. Incorporating different strategies into the curriculum allows the students to potentially achieve higher learning expectations. In addition to the students’ positive descriptions in the reduced course model from the course evaluations, faculty’s perceptions of a reduced course load allows for more focused students. Additional research beyond just one semester of reduced courses should be completed in NMT education.