I recently enrolled in a basic course in Health Professionals Education to help me improve how I teach research to medical students. I learned that medical curriculum has evolved from the traditional classroom type of teaching to problem-based learning, and most recently to outcome-based education. With the changes in student learning styles, so did teaching strategies evolve especially to include use of new technologies to adjust for maximum learning.
Just like what telemedicine does for healthcare service delivery, online tools can be used to aid teaching. This will help improve intended learning outcomes through online courses. It allows us overcome the geographic, economic and opportunity cost of education. It ensures technical support of seasoned educators from university. The main limitation would be the availability and accessibility to reliable internet.
Flipping the classroom involves initiating learning online by providing content outside the classroom,. More time is freed up to reinforce the content. Blended learning combines online provision of content with face to face classroom instruction. These are some ways to apply online tools for teaching. Open Education Database provides a comprehensive list of Web 2.0 Teaching Tools for a variety of functions. At first glance, this list overwhelms, but it may be confusing as it is exciting.
Costello describes five ways to connect with online students:
- Forge a personal connection by providing a picture or video introduction.
- Enhance your lessons by integrating video clips and other types of media.
- Set realistic expectations for response time.
- Encourage your students to connect with each other through meaningful discussions.
- Explore interactive communication such as live chats, instant messaging, and online office hours.
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