Teaching Health Professionals Online Frameworks and Strategies

Teaching Health Professionals Online is a must-read for professionals in the health care field who strive to deliver excellence in their online classes. Intended for a wide range of professionals, including nurses, social workers, occupational and radiation therapists, chiropractors, dietitians, and dental hygienists, this compendium of teaching strategies will inspire both new and experienced instructors in the health professions. In addition to outlining creative, challenging activities with step-by-step directions and explanations of why they work, each chapter in the text situates practice within the context of contemporary educational theories such as instructional immediacy, invitational theory, constructivism, connectivism, transformative learning, and quantum learning theory. The authors also address other issues familiar to those who have taught online courses. How can a distance instructor build teacher-student relationships? How does one transform the assumptions often held by students in the health fields from the confines of the virtual classroom? Most importantly, how can the instructor support his or her students in their future pursuits of knowledge and their development as competent professionals? By considering these and other concerns, this handbook aims to help instructors increase student success and satisfaction, which, the authors hope, will ultimately produce the best possible patient care.

About the Authors

Sherri Melrose, Caroline Park, and Beth Perry teach in the Faculty of Health Disciplines at Athabasca University. Melrose has published widely on educating health professionals and is a winner of the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing Award for Excellence in Nursing Education. Park developed her first online nursing course for the University of Manitoba in 1997 and has subsequently developed and taught many courses for Athabasca University. Perry is currently principal investigator of a SSHRC-funded study that explores how artistic pedagogical technologies influence interaction, social presence, and community in the online post-secondary classroom.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction
3. 1. Instructional Immediacy: The Heart of Collaborating and Learning in Groups
4. 2. Invitational Theory: Developing the Plus Factor
5. 3. Constructivism: Building on What Learners Know
6. 4. Connectivism: Learning by Forming Connections
7. 5. Transformational Learning: Creating Attitudinal Shifts in Online Learners
8. 6. Quantum Learning Environments: Making the Virtual Seem Real in the Online Classroom / Katherine Janzen
9. Conclusion: Rethinking Online Course Design and Teaching

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 CA). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.