Construction of Online Courses
Over the last few weeks, I have been working on developing two online courses for the community college where I teach in the medical assisting program. The two courses under construction are Coding and Insurance and introduction to the Electronic Medical Record. Since the last article, I have made significant progress.
The coding and insurance course will provide students with the basics of CPT coding. The coding course will be an 18-week course that will provide an overview of the CPT coding system and reimbursement. I decided to approach each week in modules that will cover the major sections of the CPT manual. Each module will consist of lecture notes, practice exercises and assignments that correlate to the section of the CPT manual. Students will also be active in the discussion board with postings of real life coding scenarios. Students will be tested at the end of each module. This way I can work with them on any weak areas before they proceed to the next module.
So far I have developed the skeleton of the modules. I have to go back and enter the major content of each module. The overall course objectives have been developed and general information about the course have been placed on Blackboard. The textbook has been selected and the course schedule has been written around the school calendar.
The Electronic Medical Record course will center around a computerized version of electronic medical record training software. The students will be able to simulate the basics of an electronic medical record using this software. Students will be able to enter patient demographics, insurance, medications and schedule appointments. So far, I am working on developing modules for certain areas of the software that we will cover. The modules will also include lecture notes, assignments and the discussion board. The students will have to complete projects within each module that requires research on the issues surrounding the electronic medical record.
My goal is to have both courses completed by the first week in August. Stay tuned for another update next week.