The purpose of this video is to allow you to reflect on
what you have learned over the course of this class and how it applies to your
current or future job plans.
The subject matter of curriculum design has become more
interesting to me since the start of this class. How does one take basic knowledge and skills
and set them up in a way that allows students to easily learn basic objectives
and more. What are the proper ways of
choosing the correct learning outcomes for a class? Coming from a medical background I don’t have
a strong foundation in these principles. To you these are elementary questions
you learned long ago. To me these are
completely new concepts. In the last 7 years I have become a clinical
instructor for a respiratory therapy medical program at Collin College. That was the first time I realized being
knowledgeable in the field did not mean you could effectively teach. While I had a strong background in science,
it never occurred to me there was a science to teaching. Actually, once that realization hit home, I
felt more comfortable in pursuing the science of teaching and the elements it consists
of. That desire was the initial factor
in my seeking a master’s degree. I did
have the opportunity to choose a master’s of health science, health management,
or even respiratory therapy. Management
was never my dream, but leadership is.
Then, as time went by and I saw individuals from different cultures,
socio-economic backgrounds and career fields turn into health care
professionals I got hooked on teaching.
The personal growth I got to take part in and witness in the field of
adult education was fantastic. I wanted
to become a better instructor of the subject matter and professional field I
loved so much. One big problem is the
limited positions open to advanced respiratory care practitioners, including in
the career of education. A master’s
degree in education, global e-learning and leadership may allow me to extend my
experience in healthcare to a larger audience.
So how do I plan on doing that? Obviously I have to learn more about the
field of adult education. Where did it come from? Where is it going? This class was a large help to me in
understanding how to develop learning material in ways that cross many
different careers and industries. It has
given me an opportunity to consider the start of using my talents and
experience in other areas besides hospitals.
Perhaps I don’t have to become a professional educational design
programmer. Maybe I can participate as a
subject matter expert for on-line respiratory care programs used in various
countries. I have also considered
participating in the development of patient education interactive courses. The
course would cover disease processes like Asthma, and COPD (Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease) and how to properly use medication delivery devices. These courses would be for patients getting
ready to discharge home after being admitted to the hospital for an
exacerbation of their condition.
What was the most challenging thing you learned?
Most challenging was sections two and three. Sections two
and three concentrated on several different approaches to instructional design
and the applicable protocols or outlines.
These sections were more technical than others. I had to read these sections several times to
get an idea of how the theories are applied.
It was in these sections that reading the blogs of other students in the
class helped tremendously. I also read a
lot of the inputs from blog responses more in this section than any other. When I could envision some of these
principles from reading the blogs of people currently in the field it helped to
solidify areas I was still not sure of.
What was the most interesting thing you learned?
Of course chapter 20 was the most interesting to me. How IDT comes into play in the industry of
healthcare. It was this chapter that
opened the door for me possibly crossing over into IDT and specializing in the
field of healthcare. As any other
industry healthcare has its own culture and language. Understanding the culture, language and
traditions that exist in this field would certainly help me to develop training
and education programs that others in these professions can identify with. Another interesting fact for me in this
chapter came from learning how healthcare education started as a narrow focused
memorization type education and developed into the problem and evidence based
educational focus it is today. From my
clinical experience, I completely agree with the findings of (Norman and Schmidt, 1992)that students who
learn to integrate medical facts in problem solving retain the information
better and have better self-directed learning skills. Problem-based learning is the standard in
healthcare training.
An equally interesting area for me in chapter 12 was the
discussion on management and leadership skill sets and differences. As I have stated earlier, I don’t have a
passion for management. However, the
attitudes and skills required for the sound leadership of a project team and
how those skills compare to management requirements was very informative. Concentrating on management requires plans
for goals to be met, and very strict organization. My personality strengths lie more in vision,
finding the right people with the right skills and providing them the help and
atmosphere they need to accomplish the goal.
The discussions in this chapter of the book struck a chord where the
area of leadership is concerned and helped to make it more interesting to
me. I am especially excited to take
courses in connection with leadership requirements at this level.
What was the most useful thing you learned?
Chapter 26 covering the varied professional organizations
and publications available in the ID field was fantastic! What a great idea to help students get an
idea of where to start searching for more information about this field. These organizations allow students to learn
what is current in the profession and where it may be going in the future. Especially helpful were the different
websites to investigate all of the diverse areas of the field that you may be
interested in. Within that chapter were
literally dozens of varied areas of study.
There was something for everyone to pursue no matter where your
interests lie.
List three examples of how you have already implemented
or plan to implement things you have learned this semester.
1
As I
discussed earlier, I would like to put together small power point presentations
about various lung diseases and medications used. I would incorporate illustrations, short
films, questions and scenarios. The
actual exam might consist of the patient teaching the instructor about when and
how to use the appropriate medications and when to call the doctor.
However, now when I develop this program I
will use the evaluation model at each stage of production.
2
Instructional programing should focus on the
learning sciences and be evaluated as to how well the program adheres to that
science. I also want to use problem or
evidence based learning in the regards of spurring more individual curiosity
and self – learning of the students.
3
There is a strong shift toward performance
improvement in the health care industry as well as others mentioned in the
book. I believe the development of
training material must keep this in mind as a secondary outcome to a training
program. Ultimately, the end result of
training is to improve performance. More importantly, it is imperative to
recognize the times that further training is not the answer. In the future I would hope to be able to
acknowledge when training is not the issue and as a leader have non training
solutions. Some of these could be
recognition awards, incentive systems etc.
Another area I would like to learn more about is performance improvement. Our book showed us a few models and suggested
some reading which a start is but I would like to understand how to integrate
the concept straight into training programs where appropriate.
To bring this video to a close, this class
taught me a lot about the science of learning, and producing educational
material that motivates and improves student outcomes and performance. It gives someone like me a place to start in
the professional development of curriculum whether it is used for training,
continuing education or initial classroom learning. I believe this class will help me in the
leadership skills necessary to produce a useful and interesting product.