Course Details

3 credits, lower division, general education designation in Natural Science, 100% online, large enrollment course following a partially self-paced format

Course description

This course is a survey of the mechanisms and procedures used to monitor health and diagnose disease.  It is a foundation course for future professional level courses in the diagnostic disciplines.

Overall course goals

As a general education course in natural science, students will:

• Identify and discuss the  foundations of clinical diagnostic methods as they are related to chemistry, biology(anatomy and physiology) and physics.
• Compare, contrast and correlate the diverse diagnostic disciplines
• Identify and evaluate  information resources in the diagnostic disciplines
• Interpret diagnostic information
• Explain the limits of using clinical data for diagnosis,
• Identify and solve clinical problems using clinical data
• Analyze and interpret ethical issues related to diagnostic testing, equity and access to health care, and 21^st century health care.

Course: Introduction to Diagnostic Medicine  C L Sci 205

Course Details

3 credits, lower division, general education designation in Natural Science, 100% online, large enrollment course following a partially self-paced format

Course description

This course is a survey of the mechanisms and procedures used to monitor health and diagnose disease.  It is a foundation course for future professional level courses in the diagnostic disciplines.
Overall course goals

As a general education course in natural science, students will:

• Identify and discuss the  foundations of clinical diagnostic methods as they are related to chemistry, biology(anatomy and physiology) and physics.
• Compare, contrast and correlate the diverse diagnostic disciplines
• interpret diagnostic information
• Identify and evaluate  information resources in the diagnostic disciplines
• explain the limits of using clinical data for diagnosis,
• identify and solve clinical problems using clinical data
• Analyze and interpret ethical issues related to diagnostic testing, equity and access to health care, and 21^st century health care.

Student Learning Objectives

Module 1: Mechanisms of Diagnosis and Disease

Who is the typical student in this course?

Students

• Students are undergraduates in a large (>30,000), R1 university. 75% plan on careers in a health science major, the rest are exploring options or fulfilling general education requirements.
• Most are under 30 but few are traditional full-time students.
• Most are freshmen or sophomores
• The majority are mixing online and face to face courses .
• Most enjoy using technology, as long as it is easy and doesn’t require them to download software.(based student feedback and prior course experience)
• Most are not terribly interested in mixing academic course information with social networking and like to keep their IPods, Facebook and Twitter groups free from coursework. (based on student surveys, research and anectodatal evidence)
• > 50% indicate a dislike of group work (based on 5+ years of student surveys)
• Older (returning adults or second degree) students might take a little longer to get up to speed with technology, but they seem to use it more effectively and become as proficient as they need to be.
• Most are probably much more comfortable with the sit-and-get format of learning and will need some coaching to become comfortable with the learner centered model

Learning objective:

After reading assigned textbook pages and viewing/reading the audio Powerpoint lesson students will demonstrate how predictive value, test sensitivity, and test specificity are essential to selecting appropriate diagnostic tests and with entry level competence as assessed by participation with an interactive case study.

Taxonomy:

Applying

Student centered authentic assessment:

Case analysis is commonly used as a learning tool and assessment in clinical education. An interactive case study, allowing students options for knowledge checking and advanced thinking, along with instant feedback is an excellent tool in an online course. Collaboration among students in analyzing and solving case studies is welcome. It isn’t possible to plagiarize participation in this Flash based, interactive environment.  Students would need to work harder at cheating than the y would at working through the case studies.

www.raptivity.com

Raptivity, by Harbinger is a Flash based, rapid development platform for interactive elearning activities. Raptivity provides hundreds of pre-programmed templates that allow customized creation of learning objects by instructors. The use of learning objects in online instruction

Advantages of  Raptivity: The rich variety of templates plus professional programming makes Raptivity a great program for those with need for interactive learning objects. Free or low cost programs can be used to create learning objects, but the time involved in creating could be considerable. Raptivity is downloadable software. Created activities reside on the server of the creator. A single license is required vs. an annual subscription .  Students do not need Raptivity software to participate in the activities.

Raptivity has been recognized by a number of training and education organizations over the past several years. Raptivity does offer a free fifteen day trial. This product is SCORM compliant and interfaces with multiple learning management systems.  The abilitity to produce interactive learning objects and track student interaction and performance automatically with an LMS is a great advantage in assessment, particularly in a class with a larger enrollment.  Of interest to professional educators and instructional designers is the linkage of Raptivity learning activities to Bloom’s taxonomy and  Gagne’s nine events.

Disadvantages of Raptivity: This product must be purchased, one license for each user.  It is not inexpensive. Users must weigh time and talent of developers against the cost of the software.  There are many products available for creation of interactive learning objects. The best tool is the one that is supported by learning technology specialists in an organization.

Some resources for Raptivity:

http://www.raptivity.com/raptivity-tools.html

http://theelearningcoach.com/reviews/software/raptivity-a-review/

Learning objective:

After reading an assigned journal article, students will discuss  and analyze sources of diagnostic errors and potential steps to minimize such errors based on the course discussion rubric

Taxonomy:

Analyzing/applying

Student centered authentic assessment:

Asynchronous discussion is the heart of most online courses.  Learning management systems allow for the management of this function. Where a course management system is not used, or sometimes in addition to it, a tool such as a wiki can facilitate student discussion.  In this student centered assessment, students must create individual responses and reflections and respond to peers.  Reflective learning is a common technique in on-ground or on-line learning.  Students may lag in participation, but are unlikely to copy the post of another student.  Each entry should be unique.  Grading of discussion posts with a discussion rubric encourages student active participation.

www.wikispaces .com

Wikis are simple to use, collaborative web pages.  Members of a wiki page can update and updates are recorded and archived, providing a record of interactions.  The purpose of wikis is to provide a web based way to collaborate, edit and publish.

Advantages of  wikispaces.

Wikispaces is a free software. It is widely available and simple to edit. For the purpose of a discussion forum, wikis are a simple tool.  Wikis, used for discussion allow for editing of peer posts as well as entering original posts and responses.  The editing property can be a powerful learning tool when properly guided.

Wikispaces does provide (for a fee) private labeling for higher education use.  This use of a standard product can be an advantage to students who wouldn’t need to learn the navigation of various free wiki packages available to individual instructors.

Disadvantages of wikispaces

Wikis can become difficult to manage for the student and instructor. A lack of threading of discussion topics could make assessment challenging. Rubrics with clear expectations for student participation could be helpful.  Collaborative work is not always viewed in a positive light by students.  It is important for the student to believe that his own performance is evaluated in addition to his group’s performance.  The real-time editing function , a key advantage in wikis, may not be used effectively by students who may feel self-conscious about editing a peer’s entry.

Some resources for wikispaces:

http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Articles+and+Resources

http://www.wikispaces.com/site/privatelabel/whitepaper-highered

Learning objective:

After reading assigned textbook pages and viewing/reading the audio powerpoint lecture, and self assessing using practice quiz and tutorial activities, students will define or describe  with 80% accuracy as measured by a post unit quiz

• Diagnostic signs
• Diagnostic symptoms
• Pretest diagnostic factors
• Intratest diagnostic factors
• Post test diagnostic factors
• Reference range (normal value)
• Screening tests
• Pathogenesi

Taxonomy:

Understanding/remembering

Student centered authentic assessment:

Each module in this course includes multiple, low-stakes quizzes based on specific content. As an introductory course, with little prior knowledge on the part of students, it is essential to develop a base of vocabulary and knowledge for students. Students are allowed multiple opportunities to demonstrate 80% mastery and must wait sixty minutes between attempts. This design is intended to  minimize question memorizing or peer collaboration.

www.quizbuilder.com

Quiz builder

Quiz builder, by Tanida is an exam/test question tool that allows creation of a full range of questions, including audio and images.  This Flash based tool provides some engaging and interactive options, enhancing student learning even while they are completing an assessment. Student results are archived in the Tanida data-base, or can be exported to a Word or Excel document.

Advantages:

Self scoring quizzes can be supportive and developmental for students. Immediate feedback encourages students to correct inaccurate learning. Quizzes developed from textbook or professional databases can be particularly useful to instructors with large enrollment courses or where there is significant specific content that is introductory in nature.  Quizbuilder allows for randomization of questions within the quiz but not questions drawn from a random pool.  The Flash capability of a tool such as Quizbuild allows for an engaging and interactive quiz assessment. The ease of adding pictures is beneficial when visual recognition is required.  Rapid production of quizzes is essential for a model that uses a frequent, mastery based model.

Quiz builder allows a free trial download.

Disadvantages:

Quizbuilder does not allow for multiple attempts at a quiz from a random pool of questions. This is important when using a mastery model of assessment. The instructor would need to create mutlple versions of a quiz based on a set of learning objectives. The tool is reasonably priced but does require an annual license. Since very few institutions offer only one online course, or have only one online instructor, multiple licenses would be required.

Quizzing can be considered to be a low level form of assessment. Well written questions can be challenging to students and test higher order skills.

A resource for mastery based quizzing:

http://www.thencat.org/R2R/AcadPrac/CM/PsyQuizzing.html

Learning objective:

After completing information literacy tutorials and  searching online and library resources (lib guide) for current information on health care delivery in the United States,  students will post a resource to share with the class and describe the use/value of such a resource. Participation is assessed with the course information literacy rubric.

Taxonomy:

Creating/evaluating

Student centered authentic assessment:

Aside from initial mentoring, this is a fully student directed learning activity.  Students are able to learn from their peers and improve performance over the course a semester. Students develop autonomy in information evaluation. As a self-directed, original and individual activity, there is low possibility or incentive for plagiarism.

www.diigo.com

Diigo is an acronym for Digest of Internet Information and Other stuff

This free download supports research, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and social networking.  Students are directed to download the toolbar, join a group created by the instructor, identify a resource pertinent to the topic assigned by the instructor and evaluate that resource for reliability, relevance and timeliness.  Students annotate the bookmark with summary information and post to the group. Students are also directed to tag their resource appropriately.

This assessment serves the multiple purposes of assessing information literacy, finding and using self-identified resources,  documenting and sharing information and developing skills for ongoing learning.  It is used throughout the semester to support the goals of shared learning and information literacy.

Advantages of Diigo

The Diigo tool allows for highlighting text, annotating, commenting, posting bookmarks and organizing internet bookmarks. It is useful for teams and allows for connections to others who have similar interests.  Diigo allows web-based access to information from any location with an internet connection.  The tool gives instructors the ability to monitor student research and comments.  It gives students the opportunity to create a readily accessible database of information for current and future use and to readily draw on the expertise of their peers.

Diigo provides substantial documentation and options for educators.

Disadvantages of Diigo

Students may not be familiar with social bookmarking, nor see the value of such a tool. The tool requires the creation of an account and a download of the software. Some institutions may block the download of a toolbar. Diigo does have a Diigolet function available if a toolbar download is not possible.

A tour of Diigo is available here

Some mentoring and instruction is necessary. Diigo cannot be downloaded through an LMS or on institution owned computers which can be a frustration for students. Good upfront directions will be helpful.