The Strengths and Shortcomings of the First Distance Learning MPH Course at Kerman Medical University From the Students' Viewpoint:A Qualitative Study

Introduction: In order to equip health system administrators with further education, for the first time in Iran, Kerman Medical University enrolled 30 of them as MPH (Master of Public Health) distance learning students in 2008. It seemed necessary to document the experiences of this course to design better programs in the future. Methods: This study was a qualitative descriptive study. All third semester distance MPH students were invited to participate in two focus groups. The total participants were 19 students. Open-unstructured questions were asked. Each focus group lasted for about 1.5 hours. The discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data analysis was done by thematic analysis. Results: Students commented on two main themes: benefits and shortcomings. The data was categorized in several subthemes. Among the benefits, they mentioned saving time and money, not commuting, active participation in learning, students’ interaction, and the benefits of cuncurrent study and work. In the shortcomings they spoke about the weak infrastructure, limited access to teachers, learning less, the difficulties of scuncurrent study and work, inappropriateness of the learning material, pile up of undone assignment and absence from educational environment. Conclusion: In this study the benefits and shortcomings of the distance learning program were discussed. Comments such as embarkment on distance learning only after a successful experience of running the same degree program in attended format, providing high speed internet and proper software infra-structure, familiarizing teachers about distance teaching, constant quality surveillance and conducting workshops for some topics were made for the improvementof the course.