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Tepper S.1, Blackinton M.2, Wruble E.3, Deutscher D.4, Horn C.5
1Rehab Essentials, Monkton, United States, 2NOVA Southeastern Tampa, Hybrid DPT Program, Tampa, United States, 3University of Delaware, Newark, United States, 4Maccabi Healthcare Services, Tel Aviv, Israel, 5Private Practice, Franschhoek, South Africa
Background: What if content-area experts outside the university provided lectures while university faculty organized the active learning experiences? What if this content expert instruction helped to standardize educational content across universities-creating a similar product of foundational knowledge? What if we could educate practicing clinicians in a similar way to keep up to date with evidence based practice? And what if these changes created more time for university faculty to enhance student assessment, provide patient care, or engage in scholarship and service?
Purpose: To show how content experts can help teaching in your institution or clinical practice site to help reduce variation in physical therapy education.
Methods: Accreditation standards often require faculty to show evidence of recent and relevant expertise in topics they teach. Showing expertise is difficult to do in some topic areas such as pharmacology, medical imaging/radiology, and screening for medical disorders. This presentation provides a compelling case for content-expert instruction that standardizes content across universities using an online format so that faculty can focus on fostering retrieval practices that enhance learning. Faculty from two distinct PT programs, one a Research I, Public University and the second a Research Intensive Private, Not-for Profit University, share their use of standardized instruction through an external company in several foundational PT courses such as pharmacology and medical imaging/radiology as compared to various typically run courses at universities.
Results: The presenters will share the impact of this instruction on students, faculty roles, and clinicians. The presentation will include: Financial management, integration of instruction through the curriculum, faculty role in facilitating and assessing learning; and overall impact on program management and outcomes. Also, a presenter will explain the experience of training > 300 physical therapists on "Screening for Medical Disorders" utilizing this form of online training and a Doctoral alumnus will present her educational experience.
Conclusion(s): Utilizing content experts enhances the educational experience and helps to reduce variance in physical therapy education.
Implications: We can offer online education in a cost effective way to reduce variation in PT education.
Funding acknowledgements: No funding was obtained for this project.
Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning
Ethics approval: No need for ethics approval.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
