Students’ Perceptions of Telepresence: A cross-sectional view in health professions
Abstract: Multi-site campuses pose unique challenges regarding equality in instruction, resources, culture, and continuity. This study was conducted in order to foster continuous improvement in assessing and understanding student experiences on distant campuses in synchronous telepresence courses. The problem considered in this study was the quality of experience at the main campus site as compared to that of external campus sites when video teleconferencing (VTC) is employed. Graduate Physician Assistant (PA) and Physical Therapy (PT) students (n=63) completed an end of year survey, assessing impressions regarding the telepresence course experience. Student responses were analyzed using two-tailed independent sample t-tests assuming equal variances in SPSS 24.0. Results demonstrated significant differences in student perceptions regarding telepresence technology courses across distant sites, but not among disciplines. This study adds to the current literature and understanding of synchronous distance education and video teleconferencing in health professions programs by focusing on the student experience.
Presider: Stephanie Taitano, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania