A comparison between online and face-to-face learning

The nursing profession has been identified as the largest healthcare profession using the internet and its requests to participate in continuing education (CE) are increasing. This project addressed an identified need to create, implement, and evaluate an educational intervention to measure knowledge gains and retention between a face-to-face and web-based course for Registered Nurses (RNs). Quantitative methods were used to address the research problem for RNs that treat the geriatric population. A curriculum for an oral health CE course was developed for RNs that treat the geriatric population and presented in a web-based and face-to-face course. The same oral health education material was used for both CE formats. A literature review demonstrating effective curricular, instructional and evaluative strategies for continuing professional healthcare education as well as a review of several theories in the psychology of adult learning and its application to continuing professional healthcare education was conducted. A multiple question test was developed and the same test questions, ordered differently, were given to RNs as the pre-test, post-test and one week retention test.