Modernising our courses and programs in Health Disciplines

On Jan 30, 2018 I was fortunate to be able to chat with folks from the University of Regina about ways in which we in the Faculty of Health Disciplines at Athabasca University are continuing to improve and modernise our pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning.

Much of this renewal is based around the principles of Open and Connected learning. Whereas we have a tradition of building our courses based on the Community of Inquiry framework, we have typically contained our activities within the Learning Management System. Thus, the community is contained in time and space.

Open pedagogical practices involving learning in the open and connecting in the open can transcend time and space. Students can make connections within a course and these connections can persist beyond the course and beyond the program. Thus our students can expand their own Personal (and Professional) Learning Networks (PLN). Further, through open learning and the use of authentic assignment activities they can show the world the kinds of things they are capable of doing. These things could involve public speaking (e.g., YouTube presentation), a program proposal, a blog discussing professionalism, and so on.

I discussed these issues and our guiding principles yesterday with some links and examples and resources which can be found here. The presentation was recorded, and once it becomes available I will share it here.

For now, the slides are found below. Some of the presentation links are not public, so you might find some dead ends.