PURPOSE: During 2003, 2004, and 2005, the role of 70 tutors was changed from that of facilitator to discussion leader, in a preclinical PBL learning course, Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology, by use of three key business school teaching strategies: questions, summaries, and schematics. The purpose of this study was to learn what ...

A growing number of essential consumer choices and public policy issues require a basic level of scientific literacy. Recent studies suggest as many as three-quarters of adults are unable to read and understand news accounts of scientific advances and controversies. In response to this challenge, a new course for non-science ...

OBJECTIVE: A head-to-head trial was conducted to compare laypersons' long-term retention of life-saving psychomotor and cognitive skills learned in the traditional multi-hour training format for basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator use to those learned in an abbreviated (30 min) course. METHODS: Laypersons were randomized to either: (1) the ...

OBJECTIVES: To establish an elective course designed to improve oral communication skills of students whose first or best language or dialect is not North American English. DESIGN: A course that combined English as a Second Language pedagogy with pharmacy applications and content was created. Class exercises on language skills in ...

OBJECTIVE: To develop, implement, and evaluate the use of virtual patients as a teaching tool for third-professional year PharmD students within an advanced elective self-care course. DESIGN: Practicing community pharmacists, faculty members, and pharmacy residents with alias e-mail accounts served as virtual patients and corresponded on a weekly basis via ...

INTRODUCTION: The Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing has funded University Departments of Rural Health (UDRHs) to facilitate student placements with the goal of encouraging students to choose rural health practice. The objective of this article is twofold: first, to report student feedback regarding The University of Melbourne-UDRH required ...

Macroscopic anatomy of the brain is scheduled during the last meeting of the Short Course of Dissection, an optional course for second-year medical students at the School of Medicine of Padova, following the official 44 h of lectures of Neuroanatomy. The aim of the present study was to ascertain the ...

The methods for authoring and distributing course content are undergoing substantial changes due to advancement in computer technology. Paper has been the traditional method to author and distribute course content. Paper enables students to personalize content through highlighting and note taking but does not enable the incorporation of multimedia elements. ...

It is challenging for biomedical engineering programs to incorporate an indepth study of the systemic interdependence of cells, tissues, and organs into the rigorous mathematical curriculum that is the cornerstone of engineering education. To be sure, many biomedical engineering programs require their students to enroll in anatomy and physiology courses. ...

PURPOSE: In 2003, we described initial use of team-based learning (TBL) at 10 medical schools. The purpose of the present study was to review progress and understand factors affecting the use of TBL at these schools during the subsequent 2 years. METHODS: Representatives from 10 schools evaluated in 2003 were ...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of a service-learning course on special needs patients for dental hygiene students by considering student reflections, community site coordinators' feedback, and faculty reflections in a qualitative analysis. Twenty-three female dental hygiene students beginning their fourth semester in the program provided ...

Web-based hybrid courses are gaining in popularity in institutions of higher learning for both undergraduate and graduate nursing education. The purpose of this study was to examine how predictive the five self-regulatory resource management strategies of time management, study environment, effort regulation, help seeking, and peer learning are in determining ...

Measures related to program evaluation were selected to compare on-site and online options of a master's and post-master's nursing program. Although some differences were found in student-related outcomes, the decision to continue the online options was based on program and organizational effectiveness. The decline in the number of on-site students ...

This paper describes a new distributed Master of Science degree program stream in health informatics (HI) at the University of Victoria, Canada, aimed at healthcare and information technology professionals working in the health setting. This is a part-time graduate program where students are required to complete 10 courses and a ...

BACKGROUND: Web-based technologies are increasingly being used to create modes of online learning for nurses but their effect has not been assessed in nurse education. OBJECTIVES: Assess whether participation in face-to-face discussion seminars or online asynchronous discussion groups had different effects on educational attainment in a web-based course. DESIGN: Non-randomised ...

OBJECTIVES: To compare students' performance and course evaluations for a pharmacogenetic pharmacotherapy course taught by synchronous videoconferencing method via the Internet and for the same course taught via asynchronous video streaming via the Internet. METHODS: In spring 2005, a pharmacogenetic therapy course was taught to 73 students located on Amarillo, ...

The Internet is becoming a preferred place to find information. Millions of people go online in the search of health and medical information. Likewise, the demand for Web-based courses grows. This article presents the development, utilization and evaluation of a web-based pharmacology course for nursing students. The course was developed ...

BACKGROUND: Distance learning has been advocated increasingly as a modern efficient method of teaching surgery. Efficiency of knowledge transfer and validity of web-based courses have not been subjected to rigorous study to date. METHODS: An entirely web-based surgical 5-week lecture course was designed. Fifty per cent of the lectures were ...

During the late 1990s, the psychology department of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis made investments in its undergraduate advising program in terms of additional professional personnel, a new orientation course, an experimental intrusive advising track, innovative peer activities, and expanded physical facilities. Against this backdrop of innovations, from 1995 to 2001 ...

The purpose of this study was to present and evaluate a blended-learning course developed for undergraduate (B.D.S.), postgraduate, and diploma (hygiene and therapy) students at the University of Sheffield School of Clinical Dentistry. Blended learning is the integration of classroom face-to-face learning with online learning. The overall methodology used for ...

INTRODUCTION: Practising surgeons need an effective means for learning new skills and procedures in advanced minimal access surgery (MASA). Currently, available educational methods include traditional continuing medical education symposia (1-day courses), instructional videos, mentoring, or comprehensive courses that combine lectures, skills laboratories and live surgery. The impact of comprehensive courses ...

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area has involved specifying lists of professional competencies that programs are expected to develop, and with this the need for procedures to measure how every course within a higher education program is aligned with the program's competencies. We propose an instrument for characterizing ...

Recent studies have found that poor cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is commonly performed in resuscitation attempts, both by health professionals and lay people. One of the contributing factors to poor performance of CPR may be poor initial teaching. This study was conducted to investigate the quality of 14 CPR courses complying ...

Many institutions offer courses that last less than a quarter and are a student's sole academic responsibility for that short term. There is an unfortunate and incorrect perception that such short classes cannot be used to teach substantively. At Colorado College, we teach all of our courses in 3.5 wk, ...

For more than a decade, various approaches have been taken to teach anatomy using immersive virtual reality. This is the first complete anatomy course we are aware of which directly substitutes immersive virtual reality via stereo volume visualization of clinical radiological datasets for cadaver dissection. The students valued highly the ...

There is a big difference between preparing to teach in the classroom and preparing to teach online. The classroom environment is typically marked by a level of spontaneity in instruction; beyond the preparation-the course syllabus and the PowerPoint slides, for example-the delivery of the course is largely altered by both ...

RATIONALE FOR STUDY: To encourage application and critical thinking, case-based writing assignments and grading rubrics were developed for use in a second-year core clinical pathology course. Objectives were to describe how this teaching technique was adapted to a large-class setting and how student perceptions of the learning experience guided modifications ...

BACKGROUND: Online learning can be an excellent method for presenting clinical skills to address health behaviors. METHODS: Medical students pilot tested a skills-building course consisting of an online component and a practical application. RESULTS: A total of 38 students were registered, 25 (66%) completed the online component, and 22 (58%) ...

The use of online instruction is becoming more prevalent and transcends many disciplines. Nursing has been at the forefront of health professions utilizing distance education. Nearly half of all predoctoral dental programs report use of web-based or distance delivery. Comparatively, 22% of dental hygiene programs report use of this somewhat ...

OBJECTIVES: Health informatics is a well established and important multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary field that not only involves informatics but also medicine, nursing, engineering, biology and other-related subjects. The program has been organized on the basis of an inter-university approach with the participation of five Greek universities. The paper aims at ...

As state budget allocations for higher education decrease, "specialty" programs such as gerontology must continually demonstrate their productivity. State and private universities increasingly rely on student credit hours (SCH) or tuition generated, which is making it difficult for many gerontology programs to expand. The School of Aging Studies at the ...

Instructors of the senior necropsy rotation at Iowa State University experienced difficulty ensuring similarity of case exposure and workload during the year. This was problematic during times of low caseload, as, without necropsy cases, there was no uniform method for training or assessing students. A new assignment, the Case Correlation ...

Since 1993, the pre-clinical phase of the professional (DVM) curriculum at Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine has included two pathology courses in which both anatomic and clinical pathologists collaborate to teach concepts in general and systemic pathology. Topics such as inflammation, circulatory disturbances, and neoplasia are taught in ...

This paper presents results from a survey regarding student perceptions of the use of debate in two occupational therapy courses. The survey was initially used as a classroom evaluation, consisting of open-ended questions asked by the instructor and answered by students in a research and a policy course. Students then ...

This article presents a review of Web-conferencing and evaluation data from veterinary students and animal owners participating in Web-conference events. Web-conferencing allowed for high-fidelity transmission of images and adequate transmission of audio by off-site instructors. Geographically distributed participants found Web-conference software easy to set up and to use. Participant satisfaction ...

A web-based survey of union-based outreach instructors evaluated training materials developed to teach OSHA ten-hour hazard-awareness courses to members of the construction trades. Respondents taught an average of five ten-hour hazard-awareness courses per year. When asked about hazards commonly encountered by their trainees, 83% identified falls from ladders, with a ...

With the advent of wireless technology, new tools are available that are intended to enhance students' learning and attitudes. To assess the effectiveness of wireless student response systems in the biology curriculum at New Mexico State University, a combined study of student attitudes and performance was undertaken. A survey of ...

In an effort to provide continuing education to the students working at the Hardin Library reference desk, staff members have created an online training course using the University of Iowa's course management system called ICON(Iowa Courses Online). The course has four main components-a content page, an article discussion forum, quizzes, ...

BACKGROUND: The University of Virginia School of Medicine discontinued animal vivisection in February 2004 for teaching lifesaving procedures to third-year medical students. Consequently, a 1-day course using simulation technology was developed to meet objectives previously covered in the animal laboratory. The authors sought to evaluate the course and hypothesized that ...

This study describes a multi-method approach to evaluating a gerontological social work curriculum enrichment initiative funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation. The project involved all required first year core courses in the BA and MSW curricula. Data were collected from students at three geographically dispersed academic centers of a ...

Continuing professional development (CPD) is widely recognized as an important element in effective lifelong learning for veterinary surgeons. Traditional methods of CPD do not suit all learners, as issues such as location, time, cost, and structure sometimes prevent individuals from completing the required number of CPD study hours per year. ...

Students in animal science and veterinary science at the University of Queensland (UQ) have similar introductory courses in animal handling in year 1 of their degree programs. Veterinary students take animal-handling instruction in farm and companion animals, whereas animal science students are instructed in handling farm animals, horses, and rodents. ...

Our Introduction to Biology course (BIOL 1010) changed in 2004 from a standard instructor-centered, lecture-homework-exam format to a student-centered format that used Web-enhanced, interactive pedagogy. To measure and compare conceptual learning gains in the traditional course in fall 2003 with a section of the interactive course in fall 2004, we ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a course designed to increase use of the most recently published Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) standards for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and reporting. DESIGN: A one-day continuing education course in AST was designed and delivered at multiple sites. Data collected from course ...

OBJECTIVES: Benchmarking statements provide a mechanism for making academic standards explicit within a subject area. They allow comparisons between courses to be based on learning outcomes rather than by defining a curriculum. No such statement has been produced for informatics. In the absence of any established benchmarking statements for informatics ...

PURPOSE: Developing degree-completion programs to enable associate-prepared dental hygienists to complete a baccalaureate degree is essential to help advance the profession. This study determined current associate degree dental hygiene students' interest in degree completion, preferred educational venue, and examined if current interest in course topics supports the ADHA's Focus on ...

We tested five course designs that varied in the structure of daily and weekly active-learning exercises in an attempt to lower the traditionally high failure rate in a gateway course for biology majors. Students were given daily multiple-choice questions and answered with electronic response devices (clickers) or cards. Card responses ...

Students rarely ask questions related to course content in large-format introductory classes. The use of a Web-based forum devoted to student-generated questions was explored in a second-semester introductory biology course. Approximately 80% of the enrolled students asked at least one question about course content during each of three semesters during ...

There is an increasing need for a larger and better trained workforce in medical informatics. The goal of the AMIA 10x10 program is to educate 10,000 clinicians in medical informatics by 2010. Building upon a previously developed course, a 12 week graduate informatics course was adapted with 170 people completing ...

The aim of this study was to determine the manner in which master's of science in nursing programs, accredited by either the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission or the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, conduct ethics education. A survey method was employed to obtain requisite data. Among the main ...