The Educational Tool Box
Brandy Greenhill, MS, MT(ASCP), assistant professor, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, spoke Wednesday afternoon at McCormick Place, providing tips on how to enhance educational activities for medical lab students.
One idea she defined was an outcomes-based approach. Recent developments have encouraged a move to an outcomes-based approach to course design with learning being defined in terms of what the students can do at the end of a module or program.
The use of learning outcomes is a means of describing the contents of a module or course in terms of the learning that is intended to happen (competencies).
Greenhill also explored the idea of teaching in chunks, noting "about 12 minutes is how long a student can be expected to focus on one idea."
Additionally, she said students should always be given an opportunity to list strengths and weaknesses of the course and provide recommendations to the clinical lab instructor.