Learning through inquiry: student difficulties with online course-based Material

Abstract This study investigates the case-based learning experience of 133 undergraduate veterinarian science students. Using qualitative methodologies from relational Student Learning Research, variation in the quality of the learning experience was identified, ranging from coherent, deep, quality experiences of the cases, to experiences that separated significant aspects, such as the online case histories, laboratory test results, and annotated images emphasizing symptoms, from the meaning of the experience. A key outcome of this study was that a significant percentage of the students surveyed adopted a poor approach to learning with online resources in a blended experience even when their overall learning experience was related to cohesive conceptions of veterinary science, and that the difference was even more marked for less successful students. The outcomes from the study suggest that many students are unsure of how to approach the use of online resources in ways that are likely to maximise benefits for learning in blended experiences, and that the benefits from case-based learning such as authenticity and active learning can be threatened if issues closely associated with qualitative variation arising from incoherence in the experience are not addressed.