WEEK 19 – POTCERT – INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE EDUCATION THEORY

Rethinking education modalities

Quite a lot of great information to review.  When thinking over my teaching style, I feel that depending on the course I am teaching I shift my emphasis.

In some courses I have a more instructivism/behaviorism approach with a constructivist approach split.  I start class with 15 minutes of group flashcard work, while I am playing some inspirational message on the screen.  After some flashcard review, we discuss the message being displayed (usually something from  https://www.ted.com/talks/browse  or http://www.dailygood.org/) as I want to inspire my students to become better humans and citizens of the world.  I then lecture on the medical terms from the chapter assigned from the text, have a 15 point quiz, and then we grade the quiz.  Then more flashcard group work, followed by a  lecture on handout materials, and then another 15 point quiz.  So, there is homework review, group work, lecture and quizzes.  So, a bit of instructivism and constructivist work occuring.  This seems to work really well for me in my medical terminology classes.

I also teach medical billing and coding classes.  In this course, I split between instructivism/behaviorism, constructivist and connectivism.  There is textbook reading homework assignments along with internet exploration assignments each week.  In class we work in groups on the course workbook and also use the internet to show students how to find answers to medical billing issues in realtime.  The text was written one year ago (which seems current) and there have been a multitude of changes in medical billing this year.  We need to know how to utilize internet sites for the latest information in the most efficient manner.  We also use the textbook website for assignments.  My students have brought a wealth of information to the class from their exploration of the internet medical web sites.  I also post youtube videos about medical billing and coding to Blackboard, and have made a few tutorials for students to get a better understanding of some material.   I think this approach is very well fitted for this course.

I also teach a purely online medical billing and coding class.  I am still learning through the POT class how to make this site much more engaging.  I have certainly provided a better learning threshold for students this year than last year, but I have a long way to go until I will be happy with my site.  The students have a textbook assignment weekly with workbook assignments to be submitted on Blackboard.  I have created some tutorials, posted inspirational thoughts and tried to make the site engaging and educational.   I would consider this course to be more constructivist, but want to switch to a more connectivism approach.  As I learn more about the online educational pedagogy I see where I can improve my approach and now just need the time to do more work on the site.  I am glad I will have some time this summer to improve the site even more.

The videos and articles were quite thought provoking.  Thanks again for the wealth of information.  I learn more about myself as an instructor through these great discussions and have certainly expanded my knowledge.  Good thing I also read long books.