CHCS - Perspectives - Summer/Fall 2014

PERSPECTIVES • SUMMER–FALL 2014 54 Tampa PT students featured with Dr. stanley Wilson, dean of the College of Health Care sciences. Faculty members also create opportunities for students to work with one another despite living hundreds or even thousands of miles apart. gone are the days when discussion boards were the staple of online environ- ments. Today, students can engage, discuss, and learn with video and voice using Collaborate, JoinMe, VoiceThread, and google Hangout. De- signing opportunities for collaboration and engagement between students fosters “social presence 1 ”—defined by garrison and Vaughan (2008) as activities that emphasize group cohesiveness and personal connections. Our students have gone beyond our expectations in finding ways to stay connected outside of the class structure. A great example of social presence online and face-to-face is in our Professional Issues in Physical Therapy class. Robin galley, D.P.T., PT, OCs, assistant professor, asks students to analyze ethical issues in her online classroom, followed by a healthy face-to-face debate. Having already communicated online, stu- dents feel comfortable respectfully disagreeing with one another in person, and the discourse moves from polite to meaningful. similarly, Lance Cherry, ed.D., PT, OCs, assistant professor, uses the online portion of Medical Pathology for PTs for lecture, discussion, and question/answer sessions using Collaborate. The social presence devel- oped in the online class is enhanced during his highly competitive game of Medical Pathology Jeopardy during on-campus institutes. The focus of our face-to-face time is to bring ideas together, summarize key points, and answer any lingering questions. Analyzing, thinking, deciding, and critiquing are common terms used in every hybrid class to invite students to be active both online and in the classroom. A third myth is that hybrid courses are just like independent study courses. In fact, hybrid courses must be more structured and interactive than their traditional counterparts because students complete competen- cies online before participating in face-to-face sessions. When students arrive on campus, they already have read texts, reviewed lectures, watched videos, and participated in online quizzes and assignments. Tim Miller, D.P.T., PT, gCs, assistant professor, asks students during the online por- tion of his Clinical skills I class to watch videos of the correct way to meas- ure joint motion and measure muscle strength using manual muscle tests. Then, in his Catch Me if You Can online assignments, he has students observe videos of himself performing a skill and asks them to identify his errors/mistakes. By the time they come to campus, students have seen the correct form for these measurements, critiqued his staged per- formances, and are ready to engage in intensive hands-on practice and skills testing. similarly, Joann gallichio, D.sc. , PT, nCs, assistant professor, has her neuromuscular I students observe video footage of instructors performing standardized tests/measures on patients with neurological problems. she then has them score the patient’s performance using standardized forms before they come to campus and create a problem list and plan of care based on the patient’s performance. By the time they come to campus for intensive lab sessions, students are familiarized with the tests and practice them under the supervision of faculty members and lab assistants. Lab practice in both Dr. Miller’s and Dr. gallichio’s classrooms is sup- plemented with integrated clinical experiences (ICe). During ICe, we bring PHYSICAL THERAPY Tampa “...hybrid courses must be more structured and interactive than their traditional counterparts...” Brave New World ...Continued from previous page