Instructional Methods

Demonstrate an understanding of the theory and practice of education through the development of health science programs that focus on the application of evidence-based strategies and methodologies.

Artifact Reflection:

Instructional Design Project/HPTT 802 Instructional Design for Health Professions Education

The instructional design course project involves developing an instructional module for a health professional course. The purpose of this assignment is to provide a schematic for a highly effective instructional module. Topics covered in this project include instructional design, needs analysis, learner situations, goal development, applying principles to design, and learning assessment and evaluation. This artifact relates to the instructional method objectives by allowing the practice of developing educational programs and materials with appropriate scope, sequence, and focus for learners through the application of evidence-based strategies and methodologies.

During this project, I learned how to design an effective instructional module. The reason this instructional module is so effective is its extreme attention to detail. I was required to map out every detail of building an educational course, from module length, enrollment, human resource involvement, budget, usability, and much more. I discovered that building a course from scratch goes much further than identifying a needs analysis to fill a learning gap. I found this project to be extremely challenging due to my limited exposure to instruction at the time. However, now that I work in education, I find this assignment extremely beneficial for developing and delivering effective course content.

Artifact Reflection:

Curriculum Outline/HPTT 801 Foundations of Health Professions Education

The objective of the curriculum assignment was to provide a detailed description of a 15-week course I would like to teach. The purpose of this assignment was to identify how to develop and schedule a course integrated with learning theories to effectively teach and assess learning. This objective supports the practice of developing health science programs that apply evidence-based strategies and methodologies, such as the information-processing theory and the retrieval-based learning principle.

Completing this assignment helped me understand curriculum development more deeply, rather than simply implementing a textbook in a course. Formative and summative assessments were carefully planned to help the student learn and understand the material at a higher level, promoting long-term retention and transfer. This was a challenging assignment at the time of its completion. Then, I was not working in a classroom environment, nor had I ever built or written a curriculum before, making the concept foreign to me. However, in my current role as an educator, this knowledge of curriculum development is extremely beneficial if I want to create my own courses or update existing ones. Not only will I know how to develop curriculum, but I will also know how to connect the content to my learners for higher-level learning.