H210 Introduction to the Health Care System

Posted on February 23, 2016 by bernells

It is difficult for anyone, let alone an 18 year old, to grasp the complexity of the health care system and how all the puzzle pieces fit together. The H210 class (Intro to the Health Care System) is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the heath care system and encourage students to think critically about it’s components.

As Karen Volmar stated in her most eloquent post, the heath care system is not foreign to most students. Typically, they have some experience, but usually only as a consumer of health care. Most often, someone else is paying for their healthcare, and as far as insurance goes, they usually understand the basics, but not the details.

We envision a hybrid class that has students watching videos, engaging in projects, interacting on the discussion board and taking quizzes in the online portion of the course. In the classroom, we will set the stage for the week’s content, have speakers, talk through the assignments, provide general feedback, answer questions and have in-person discussions. It is our hope that the mix of online and in class components will fill the gap that is created by a larger class comprised of individuals with varying levels of commitment.

This class is not unlike a math class in that the information in one week builds on the prior weeks’ content. As a result, attendance and keeping up with the material is very important. With a class of 90-120 people, there are usually about 20 people who attend class only when absolutely necessary and there are others that don’t put the time in outside class to allow the material to sink. A hybrid format, with thoughtfully developed components, will set the stage for more consistent engagement with the material (and each other) on a regular basis.

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H575 – Program Evaluation of Health Promotion & Education Programs

Posted on February 23, 2016 by irvinv

The MPH program at OSU is an applied program with coursework and internships conducted in the community. My course, H575 Program Evaluation, is typically taken their second term of their first year in the graduate program.  It is offered one day a week as a 3 hour course. I would suggest having in-person class weekly for the hybrid course but shorten the length of time. The main assignment for the course is to develop an evaluation plan and assessment tool (such as a survey) for a real-world program. I pre-select potential programs from our community partners at the health department, local clinics, state agency (Oregon Health Authority) or extension offices. Students rank their preference for evaluation projects based off a brief description that I prepare.  Students work as a team typically with one other student.

The class is set-up so that the students build their evaluation plan throughout the term. For instance, week 2 is the logic model, week 3 writing the program description, week 4 writing the evaluation objectives, week 5 literature review, etc. The class culminates in a final presentation where many of the community partners join in person or remotely to watch the students deliver their presentations. In past terms, students continue on with the project for special study credit hours or internship or even present at local conferences on the evaluation plan and data.

One of the limitations of this assignment was that students focused on one type of evaluation design or assessment mode – whichever they were assigned to. This year, I still have the group evaluation plan, but I’ve added mini-evaluations. We had four guest speakers talk throughout the term on their current evaluation needs. After each guest lecture, the entire class works independently on a week-long assignment preparing a mini-evaluation for 1 topic or need asked by the stakeholder. For instance, our guest speaker this week talked about lack of cultural sensitivity and increased perceived discrimination in the Albany school district. A cultural competency training will be delivered to educators and staff in one school. Students in my class were asked to develop or find 2 survey items/measures to help evaluate the cultural competency training.  These mini-evaluations have increased my students attention to the guest lecture.  The students have asked thoughtful and pertinent questions to my guest lectures. Tying an assignment to the guest lecture has improved student participation in discussion.

My concern for this hybrid class is the amount of work. I am concerned that I have too many assignments in the hybrid course. I am planning on reducing the number of these mini-evaluations to balance the workload.

 

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Food Engineering for Food Scientists

Posted on February 22, 2016 by chaplenf

Overview

BEE 472/572 Introduction to Food Engineering Principles (5 Cr.) Fundamental engineering principles for scientists and non-process engineers. Topics include fluid flow, mass and energy transfer, and material and energy balances. Directed at food scientists and other majors who need or would like a working knowledge of food engineering principles.

The course is currently taught as a 5 hour lecture course (M (2 x 50-minute lectures), W (2 x 50-minute lectures), F (1 x 50-minute lectures)).  All materials for the lectures (slide set, examples) are posted to Canvas prior to lecture for students to review.  The lecture format is to summarize the posted slide-set, and then cover key points through discussion and examples.  In addition, there are in-class activities for the students and considerable time spent on reviewing material in the context of homework and mid-terms.  The longer lecture format is conducive to in-class activities, even with larger classes.

Course Format

The course would remain at 5 credit hours taught as 1 x 75 minute and 1 x 50 minute lecture periods with sufficient interactive online materials to replace 125 minutes of regularly scheduled lecture time.

Interactive On-Line Materials Slide-sets would be revamped and delivered in video format with voice-over.  Short public domain videos would be identified for integration with the slide sets to emphasize key points.  Longer term, such videos could be developed in a more course specific format.  Virtual office hours in a discussion forum format would be used to answer questions regarding each section of course material course material.  Discussion forums would be used to facilitate completion of the homework sets.  Use of the discussion forum would reduce points lost on graded homework questions by 50%.  Regular office hours (probably fewer than the current 3 hours/week) or office hours by appointment would also be available if difficulties with the material remained following lecture discussion.  Traditional homework format would be modified to facilitate the on-line discussion forums.

Lecture Delivery Lecture would begin with a 10-15 minute summary of material from the relevant slide sets.  One or two specific examples would be given to highlight particularly important points.  A segment of the lecture would be spent discussing and answering questions that arise in the on-line forum or during office hours.  In addition, discussion of the homework set would still occur weekly.  Roughly half of the lecture would be spent on in-class activities, either individual or small group work within a framework provided through graded work-sheets.

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hybrid class in virtual space design

Posted on February 21, 2016 by kesterst

General description

NMC 483: New Media 3D presents concepts tools and techniques for planning, creating, and understanding virtual environments. We use 3D modeling and animation software to create 3D environments, investigating light, color, texture, form, spatial design and composition. These skills and concepts can be applied to projects in many different fields, including advertising, entertainment, education and visualization.

Enrollment characteristics of students

There is no production class pre-req for this class, so students come to it from a range of backgrounds and with a variety of skill sets. Mostly these are NMC students with some video production experience. I usually have between 3-5 CS students with no production background. Occasionally I have art students. Most students are juniors or seniors. The enrollment is capped at 20 students. Over my 15 years of teaching this class I have consistently seen approximately 20/80% female/male student demographic.

How often class will meet

Class will meet once a week for 110 minutes on Tuesday or Thursday (TBD)

How to use class meeting time:

Class time will be devoted to (1) introducing and reviewing projects, (2) screening examples of professional and student work, (3) discussing readings, (4) assisting students on production assignments. There is overlap with the online part of the class in that videos are to be watched outside of class as well. Additionally, students will be expected to review the work of their peers online.

What types of content, activities assignments and/or assessments will you have online?

Online content will include (1) articles, (2) video links, (3) video tutorials, (4) discussion forums for peer-to-peer help and collaboration, (5) peer evaluations of work. I have not yet determined the best approach to online peer evaluations. I’m interested in using video for a more personalized review experience.  If the technology can be developed in time, I’d also like to have the ability for students to drop their own 3D content into a game engine where they can navigate through virtual space and explore their own work and the work of their peers.

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H210: Understanding our own healthcare experience

Posted on February 21, 2016 by volmark

The course Steph and I are creating is the hybrid offering of our program’s introductory course – H210 (Introduction to the U.S. Healthcare System).   This is a course that is already offered in multiple formats – ecampus, residential, and one week summer intensive. The residential version of the class has 85-120 students each term who are mostly sophomores/juniors who have elected public health as a major as well as a number of pre-nursing/pharmacy/med students and a handful of business or human development and family studies students. (The class is also a bac core course.)   We expect to transition all of the residential offerings to hybrid and the class will meet in person once per week for 80 minutes.

We are envisioning leveraging the hybrid format to get the students engaged outside of class, not just reading and watching videos but observing the healthcare industry and interviewing participants in the system (at least more regularly than they are currently). Everyone knows something about the healthcare system as we all interact with it as patients and I think one important goal for the class is to help place individual experiences in context – helping students understand why they need to sign the HIPPA form, why the bills from healthcare providers so often wrong the first time, why is it apparently so difficult for doctors to talk to one another? To get there, we plan to use the in class time primarily for setting up out of class work and then debriefing it —

  • In class – introduce the sector of the healthcare system or topic for the coming week and provide any skill building (observational or interviewing skills.)
  • Out of class – detailed readings and/or videos on the healthcare system organization and exercises that include:
    • Reflections on videos exploring particular challenges in the system
    • Observing a component of the healthcare delivery/financing system and reflecting on that experience
    • Group work developing guides for fellow students, etc.
  • In class – debrief the out of class experiences and use that to discuss challenges/opportunities and wrap up the topic.   In an ideal world, we would like to debrief in small groups but given the class size, will more likely use the submitted assignments to identify common themes to support our in class discussions and ask some  students to share their observations/experiences with the class.

We are thinking of conducting quizzes/exams both in and out of class.

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Cross-Pollination and the Hybrid Poetry Writing Course

Posted on February 19, 2016 by holmberk

Creating a hybrid version of WR 241 (Introduction to Poetry Writing) has given me a rich opportunity to reflect on how I’ve taught this course in the past, and what ideas about poetry and poetic creativity I most urgently want to convey. It’s also encouraged cross-pollination from other courses I’m teaching, perhaps because the format seems more porous, more flexible, and more communal in spirit. For example, in teaching a 100-level literature course on poetry using an international focus, I’ve become newly aware that, while poetry writing in the U.S. is commonly a private act, poetry is a communal activity in many parts of the world, and plays complex roles in social life. So, for my WR 241, I am building in more collaborative poetry projects to foster a collaborative ethos. Students will complete a linked haiku, or renku, for instance, to which they will each contribute several stanzas. During an early unit, we will read African riddles, and then write our own riddles; to extend this, students will collaborate on group-written riddles, and create a small anthology of them. Students will also form small group workshops on line, focusing on specific skills taught in the unit, to prepare for larger, face-to-face, holistic workshops later in the term. They will collaborate in their small face-to-face groups on exercises prompts, test drive them in class, refine them online, and create a menu from which their peers can select one to complete. Exercises will be displayed on line in a class gallery. Poems, too, will appear first in a class gallery, where they will be admired and responded to before being critiqued. The class will move from smaller and lower stakes activities (communal projects, exercises, gallery displays, small group discussions) to more invested and involved activities (whole-class workshops, evidencing their craft knowledge, and presenting their [finished] poems through a final reading/performance). I bracket this word intentionally. One of the messages I want to convey to my students is that a poem is never really finished. Every poem could be tweaked indefinitely, and the poems they write in this class could continue to evolve long after the course is over, enriched by new ideas and experiences.

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DHE 475 Global Sourcing Hybrid “Vision”

Posted on February 18, 2016 by mulletk

The course that I am developing as a hybrid course is DHE 475 Global Sourcing Textiles, Apparel and Footwear ( 4 credits) CGI Bac core course with an enrollment of about 60 senior level students.  The course covers trade theory and the effects of trade policy, cultural values, and economics on the global production, distribution, and consumption of textiles, apparel, and footwear. My preliminary ideas for the hybrid format are to use online lectures and “readings” for students to become familiar with the concepts and then use in class time for more debate and highlights.   The current textbook used in this course is excellent in providing and overview of the global trade with the textile and apparel industry.  I envision the course being structured such that students read the textbook and answer questions related to the reading. Discussion topic would relate to the readings and then be used for in class time. The class time would be used to review current issues which relate to the chapter’s topic.  For example: the Chapter “ Illegal and Unethical Trade Activity”, would include class time for students to debate whose responsibility and at what level a design is a patent infringement, counterfeit or knockoff, and who should be responsible for policing this within a company. As a Bac core course, critical thinking is essential.  Using class time for case studies and current events would be more beneficial than a lecture format of teaching trade policy and global sourcing.  I am a firm believer in encouraging students to teach each other.

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Hybrid course “Living with Cascade Volcanoes”

Posted on February 18, 2016 by kentad

I plan to develop a hybrid version of the GEO 305 course Living with Cascade volcanoes. This is a 3 credit baccalaureate core course for non majors, and is designed to provide students with an insight into the processes that lead to the formation of volcanoes, the different types of volcanoes and volcanic eruptions, and the hazards that volcanoes can present to people and infrastructure. The typical enrollment is 40-60 students. The focus of the class is on our “local” volcanoes of the Cascades such as Mount Hood and Mount St Helens, but we will also venture out to look at other volcanoes around the world – particularly in the developing world where volcano-related hazards can be much more acute. We’ll specifically use case studies from recent volcanic eruptions to understand volcanic processes and the hazards they represent (examples such as the Amero disaster in Columbia, Mount St Helens in 1980, Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland, Kilauea Hawaii and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines).

The course is being developed to be a “hybrid” class – with both face to face (‘f2f’) and online modalities. My goal with a hybrid approach is to prioritize f2f time for discussions and other activities that reinforce learning, while using online activities and research to provide the initial knowledge, and also to take advantage of an existing rich environment of online resources regarding volcanoes and volcanic eruptions.

Other features I plan to build into the course:

  • Continual assessment – i.e. no midterm or final, but weekly online quizzes and exercises to bolster learning.
  • An in-class volcano monitoring simulation based around Mount St Helens where students take the roles of various people involved in making decisions about volcanic risk
  • Development of a group multi-media term project presentation based around illustrating the volcanic hazards that exist for different cities and towns in the Cascade region.
  • Active learning demonstrations – i.e. blowing up trash cans full of water, adding mentos to coke etc., and using these to illustrate key concepts about volcanic behaviour.
  • A class field trip to Mount St Helens or to Central Oregon.
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Description of planned hybrid course – Fish Diseases

Posted on February 18, 2016 by barthoje

The course, Fish Diseases in Conservation Biology and Aquaculture, is an upper division undergrad/grad 3 credit course. Because it is designed for both Microbiology and Fisheries majors, it has few prerequisites, and students have to get caught up on the basics of one field or another. It has been limited to 25 students, who also took a laboratory class, but the lab is now offered separately, which may allow the course to grow.

The hybrid class will meet once a week face-to-face for 80 min. During this time students will listen to guest lecturers that will talk about special topics in the field and who come from different backgrounds. We will also expand on major concepts presented in the online mini-lectures through discussion or group exercises, work on a group assignment and take exams.

Online activities will include pre/post-lecture quizzes, videos and mini-lectures that present key concepts and activities that build on these concepts. Students will participate online through reflections on the assignments and specific discussion topics. There will be a multi-stage group project with online assignments, with each group sharing their material and conducting peer reviews of slides and writing components and a final in-class presentation.

There will be continual flow between online and classroom activities. For example, in preparation for the guest speakers, students will post questions for the speaker online and then the guest presentation will be followed by in-class discussion and an online quiz or discussion post. Due dates and carefully structured activities will help maintain the timely connection among in-class and online content and activities.

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Sage on the Stage

Posted on January 28, 2016 by chaplenf

Food engineering is a broad field and I think it critical that students be able to understand basic principles and use them to analyze situations and equipment with which they inevitably have little initial familiarity.  I view a significant part of my role as instuctor to be teaching students the language of engineering and relatedly how to use this new knowledge to identify materials that might be useful to class but also during future professional careers, i.e., I view myself more as facilitator for learning than a sole source of knowledge.

I am also lucky enough to teach groups of students with significant food processing experience through internship or prior work life and strive to bring their knowledge into the class.  This is definitely something that could be done better, however, and I am hoping to use the enhanced discussion forum capabilities of canvas to bring out these experiences and improve the performance and understanding of all the students in each class.

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