Sunday, November 2, 2003

This presentation is part of : Online Education for Students and Staff

Issues in Personal Health: A Transdisciplinary, Online Course

Alayne Fitzpatrick, RN, CS, EdD, Nursing, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, USA, Ruth Lyons Hansen, PT, MS, CCS, Physical Therapy, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, USA, Mary C. Kraetzer, PhD, Behavioral Sciences, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, USA, and Judith A. Parker, OTRL, MS, Occupational Therapy, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, USA.
Learning Objective #1: Describe the development of a transdisciplinary, online health course
Learning Objective #2: Describe the content and online assignments of a health course to improve the health of students

Introduction

One of the goals of the strategic plan for our college is to improve the health of the students. A group of health professional educators decided to teach a health course together and offer it online to undergraduate students to improve the health of this aggregate.

Purpose

The purpose of this presentation is to describe an online course developed and taught by a partnership of transdisciplinary health educators to improve the health of students.

Course

The modules were taught by a transdisciplinary health educators from: nursing, physical therapy, behavioral sciences and occupational therapy. The five modules in the online health course were: self assessment, choosing a health care provider, physical fitness, nutrition and stress management. For each module the students were asked to explore assigned Internet sites, read online journal articles and submit two annotated bibliographies. The students presented their written assignments in the discussion area of the course in WebCT. The students and faculty responded to these discussions on a regular basis.

Outcomes

The faculty and student evaluations of this course have been used to improve the course. The outcomes of the learners in the online health course were examined by using questionnaires. The results of the questionnaires showed that the students: took this course predominately because they were interested in learning about health; would recommend this course to another student; felt they had learned about health; and felt they would change their behavior to imporve their health. Another outcome is that a students from different localities in the world can be reached in a class using the online approach to education.

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