An evaluation of an on-line retinal imaging tutorial

Kelli Kristine Slack, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to determine the effectiveness of on-line distance training for Extension Educators, Extension support staff, and 4-H livestock volunteers learning retinal imaging techniques. This study focused on the use of asynchronous on-line materials to disseminate retinal imaging technology and techniques to the Extension Educators, Extension support staff, and volunteers. The on-line retinal imaging tutorial was used to examine adults’ ability to gain knowledge about the OptiReader™ device, retinal imaging techniques, and the retinal imaging software. A significant difference was found when comparing participants' pre-test and post-test scores by a paired t-test. This significance indicates that the participants were able to learn from the retinal imaging tutorial. Most of the demographic variables had no significant impact on the knowledge gained from pre- to post-test. These results indicate that the tutorial is accessible to a wide variety of people involved with 4-H. Additionally, the results showed no significant difference in participants' scores based on prior retinal imaging training. In the researcher's opinion, this indicates that the on-line tutorial is as informative as face-to-face training and can compliment, but not replace it. Prior research shows that hands-on training with the OptiReader™ device is essential to developing proficiency at collecting high quality images in a minimal amount of time.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Rusk, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Agricultural education|Educational technology

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