Background/Aim: Distance education applications can improve histology education. This study aimed to compare the classical and distance histology education given to the daytime and evening education students of the Health Services Vocational High School Medical Laboratory Techniques course. The students’ academic achievement, motivation, and mood were compared.
Methods: The students (n=134) that participated in the study were divided into four groups. The daytime and evening education students to whom the classical education model was applied were identified as the control group (Groups 1 and 3). The daytime and evening education students who received distance education were identified as the experimental group (Groups 2 and 4). Before and after the study, a pretest and posttest, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Academic Motivation Scale were applied to the students who received nervous system histology education.
Results: The state-trait anxiety scores did not differ significantly according to the groups (P>0.05). The state anxiety scores obtained after the posttest were significantly lower than the state anxiety scores obtained before the pretest. According to the Academic Motivation Scale scores, the extrinsic motivation - external regulation subscale was significantly lower in Group 3 compared to the other groups (P<0.05). For the knowledge test results, there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores in all groups, and the mean posttest scores were higher than the mean pretest scores. The posttest score of the daytime education face-to-face group (Classical education, Group 1) was significantly higher than the other groups (P=0.011).
Conclusion: In our study, the daytime education face-to-face group was the most effective among the different teaching styles and training methods in nervous system histology education. Our finding that the efficiency of distance education applications was not as high as face-to-face education suggests that such digital applications require further optimization. The lower success rates observed in the evening education groups can be increased by integrating face-to-face and distance education.