Session 10 - Medical investigations, procedures and equipment

This was our last session. We covered medical instrument, procedures and tests. As usual learners were brilliant.

It was quite sad that it was our last session. One learner was delighted to be finished the other was sad and would like to continue on and learn more medical terminology. It is a pity that he didn't do medical terminology before 2007 when it was changed and only Cert III level is offered. It was very good taking learners through Basic medical terminology and Advanced terminology. They did learn a lot more.

Reflection

I have learnt a lot designing, developing, delivering and assessing this course. One of the main things I learnt is that whatever you do in f2f classes there is a way to do it online - you just have to find it!

Using Elluminate online web conferencing made the course come alive. Learners were very supportive of each other. Feedback from learners that they looked forward to Monday evenings was great as at the time I was worrying that it was becoming boring.

Feedback from learners re: learning resources was very positive. They seemed to be using all of the learning resources I provided - if a learning resource was missing from the wiki I soon got an email asking for it!

Session 9 - Written Correspondence

Policies & Procedures

We started by discussing the Policies & Procedures assignment. They had some difficulties finding things on the website I had given them. I had asked them to work together using the discussion forum but they couldn't work out how to post. Oops! My mistake. I should have given them instructions. Next time I will upload Discussion Forum Use instructions to the wiki.

Written Correspondence

Needed to determine their Word skills - used a Poll and they both consider themselves experts who know how to insert footers in documents. Found out that Stephen uses a Mac.

Used File Transfer to give them their assessment task. Which they should have no trouble with.

We discussed:

• letterheads
• footers
• medical reports
• assessment task

Last Session

Next week is the last session and as all of their assessment will be complete, I decided to do more medical terminology. We will do the medical terminology associated with medical investigations, procedures and equipment. This will be a challenge for me to prepare the learning resources before I go into hospital.

Reflection

I cannot find instructions I thought I wrote on using the Discussion Forum to the Discussion page so will have to write them after my eyes work again.

Reflecting on the whole course, I think that this is the worst mistake I have made.

Session 8 - Urinary System and Policies & Procedures

Urinary System

Urinary system went well. As well as the usual prefixes, combining forms, suffixes and the diseases & disorders that the participants pronounce and tell us the meaning of, I added the assessment tasks I use with my f2f students.

They took half of each and used a line from the whiteboard tools to match the Medical term to the definition. Then they read it to us. It worked well and gave them something different to do. Next time I will allot each student a colour for their lines so that we can tell which student did which work. 

I also put the text of a medical report on a slide and italicised the medical terms, then asked each participant to say the medical term and explain what it meant - this also worked well.

When I asked if they had encountered any problems during the week, they were a little confused about ureters and urethra. I always draw a diagram on the whiteboard of the urinary system for my f2f students so I decided to do the same. On the Problems slide I drew the urinary system and then used a pointer to explain the connections. It seemed to clarify the confusion.

Policies & Procedures

I used file transfer to send Assessment 2 to the learners. Then set about preparing them for the assessment.

I encouraged thought and discussion of the importance of Policies & Procedures by asking participants to write on the whiteboard. I approved their suggestions with a ClipArt tick

Then I asked them how they could improve their knowledge of medical terminology - how they could find out what a medical term they do not know means. Once again they wrote on the whiteboard. they came up with some great ideas.

Reflection

I am realising more and more that I can do pretty much anything online that I can do in f2f class. This has enabled me to try different things and add interest to the online sessions. My students are very supportive so I feel safe to try different things. 

Session 7 - Musculoskeletal System

Before the Session

I reviewed the presentation on musculoskeletal system that I had created for this class - once again I had to re-order the slides and check that I had not duplicated medical terms on different slides. Also reviewed my presentation on the stomach - my turn to present tonight. Found a great ClipArt of a man with a very large abdomen to add to the first page.

The Session

We started 3 minutes early as everyone was there. Started with an icebreaker which they responded well to.

Then it was time for my presentation on the stomach. My man with the fat stomach made them laugh! Great start! 

Stephen asked a question I couldn't answer so John (Tech Support for tonight) researched it and gave Stephen the information.

Musculoskeletal system went well. They really are great students - so well prepared. Needed to correct pronunciation for Stephen a couple of times but that is OK as he then repeats the word to get it correct, the same way I do it in class with f2f students.

I had a slide with a skeleton and a list of the bones and spent most of the day trying to think how to manage that slide. Stephen came up with an answer by drawing a line from the bone name to the skeleton. I would still like to be able to ask the participants to move the bone name to the bone - will have to think some more, but Stephen's idea worked well!

We finished about 3 minutes early so my timing has worked well as with the other sessions. That has surprised me as I had no idea how my timing would go and have paid little attention during the sessions although at the back of my mind I knew that I could abandon some slides if necessary. So far, it has not been necessary. Not sure how it will time with more learners.

Reflection

Session went well with learners very well prepared and engaged. Anna-Lee commented that she found learning the musculoskeletal system easier to learn and thinks that is because of the word parts she has learnt in previous weeks. I am sure that this is the reason.

I enjoyed the session although they told me that I sounded like a chipmunk at one stage. this happens occasionally  when the sound goes funny, but fortunately we didn't lose sound and it was just for a short time.

Session 6 - Cardiovascular system

Learner Feedback

It was wonderful during the week to find that Jenny had rung my online learners for feedback half way through the course and that the feedback was positive. I had been worrying needlessly!

I discussed this with Lynne tonight and she suggested that the standard format may be helping the learners by giving them a predictable format and lots of repetition. I agree with that - learners do need lots of repetition to learn.

Tonight's Online Session

The session tonight went well. We started with one learner's presentation on small and large intestine. She uploaded the presentation without any help and even used a pointer during the presentation. Fantastic presentation! She chose IBS as one of her diseases/disorders and appreciated the opportunity to research the topic as she suffers from this disorder herself. She very kindly shared her experience with the class. This added an extra dimension to the presentation.

Then we tackled the Cardiovascular system after participating in an icebreaker and a Poll. The Poll asked if they knew someone with heart disease - 100% did know someone with heart disease. We discussed the particular diseases suffered.

Then we did our usual functions of the system, prefixes, suffixes, combining forms, medical terms, diseases and disorders and abbreviations. I had also added some general questions that the learners answered well. Once again the learners had done their homework and were happy to show  the depth of their learning.

I love great, enthusiastic learners!

One ESL learner has been using the Quizlets I had created for the wiki and he has now created his own Quizlets to help him with his English - great idea that I may be able to use with the e-Mentor projects.

Reflections

Learners are showing a great affinity with Elluminate - a willingness to try things. I was surprised to see the use of the pointer in the presentation.

Great to see that my use of Quizlet has inspired an ESL learner to create his own to further his own learning.

Great session I really enjoyed it.

Session 5 - Digestive System Presentations

Only remembered that I needed a presentation on the stomach yesterday. Did a little last night then finished it after I got home at 5pm today. Actually I think it is not a bad presentation.

I was concerned about the time for today as I had asked them to do 10 minute presentations and it is easy in Elluminate how quickly you get through your ppt slides. Was concerned that it would be over in 20 minutes.

Had problems getting into Elluminate. Lynne was not available today so John was my Tech Support. His computer was playing up so we were late getting in. I was in but didn't have moderator privileges so couldn't do much. Had a backup plan - I would go out and come in again as Leanne. Anna-Lee arrived early so I explained the situation to her.

We ended up starting on time. I uploaded my ppt and started. Stephen did  his presentation on Gallbladder - fantastic presentation! He had recorded a narration and was disappointed that it would not talk on Elluminate. he knew that before he started as I had encountered that previously when trying to demonstrate iSpringFree in Elluminate.

Anna-Lee did a fantastic presentation on the pancreas. She is a natural presenter! Beautifully prepared and beautifully presented.

Stephen did his presentation on the liver. Well done, of course! Quite a bit of discussion after that presentation. John joined the discussion - he knew that Lynne had joined discussions when invited in previous sessions. And all of a sudden we had 5 minutes left of our hour. So, I really had not needed to worry that we would have heaps of time left.

I decided to finish the session a little early rather than start another session and go over time. We will have Anna-Lee present small & large intestines next week and I will present stomach the following week. That should solve my boring problem for a couple of weeks.

It was a fantastic session - great learning experience for all of us. Anna-Lee commented that she would never forget the pancreas - that is experiential learning at it's best! In fact, I was so blown away with how well they went and how engaged we all were that I forgot to show my remaining slides. John thought it was a good session, too. I'm sorry that Lynne missed it.

Session 4 - Digestive System

7/8/2012
Reflection
Session went well although I had missed a duplicate medical term in the ppt even though I checked thoroughly (I thought) after the last session. Learners were fantastic as always!

I hate to say it but I am finding the format is getting very repetitive, quite boring! Not sure what I can do about it but next session is our presentations so that will be different.

I allowed the learners to choose which digestive organs they would like to research and present net week and they both chose 2 each. In f2f classes they work in pairs to present one. I offered to present the last one - the stomach.

I discussed the format of the sessions with Lynne after the session and she made a couple of suggestions but they are not really appropriate. I will continue to think about how I can liven the sessions up.