Whether you are teaching fully online in Winter semester or you are able to hold limited face to face labs, it is time to start getting prepared. Planning is key to ensuring your students not only learn the material presented, but are engaged in a remote environment. Here are some tips to get you started.
Step One: Evaluate Skills Check-Lists
Look closely at the psychomotor skills required for the course. Do these skills allow an opportunity for a student to perform at home? If so, does the lesson require the use of supplies like gloves or gowns?
Step Two: Gather Supplies
If there are skills that students can do from home, create “go” bags to provide them with a way to practice and then be assessed on these skills. Depending on the program, this may include various rapid lab test kits, sterile field material, bandaging supplies, gloves, etc. Think outside the box! Anything that isn’t invasive is something they could potentially do from home!
Once the items are gathered, it is best to provide the students with an inventory of items listed and the lesson in which they will be utilized. This helps better prepare the students for what they will be doing in your class and enforces that they will be using these supplies for assessment purposes. Once the “go” bags are ready, have students (safely) pick them up or mail out.
Step Three: Prepare Your Lessons
CrossBraining makes it easy to turn your clinical skills checklists into an interactive lesson that can be assessed remotely. Whether you want to provide your students with detailed instruction, or you want them to demonstrate their own knowledge of the skill, CrossBraining allows you to design your lesson to best meet your remote lab needs.
As we continue to face the challenges of remote learning, CrossBraining can not only make remote lab more manageable, but can also improve student outcomes and success. Students are able to self-assess before going to see the instructor, so by the time the instructor is evaluating their skills, students have already corrected their errors. This can also save the instructor time spent on skill check-offs and evaluations, allowing for more focus on other areas of instruction. You may also find that when things do return to “normal”, that this method of learning and assessment can continue to be an integral part of the educational experience.
