An online learning course in Ergonomics.
For the past two years, the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Haifa has offered an online course to third year occupational therapists on the topic of Ergonomics for Health Care Professionals. The development and implementation of this course was funded by the Israeli Ministry of Education. Unique teaching materials, developed and uploaded to the University's server via "High Learn", included interactive and self-directed documents containing graphics, animations, and video clips. Extensive use was made of the discussion forum and survey tools, and students submitted all assignments online. For the final topic, an expert in ergonomics from Boston University delivered a lecture via two-way videoconferencing. The course site included comprehensive library listings in which all bibliographic materials were made available online. Students accessed course materials at the University in a computer classroom and at home via modem. In an accompanying research study, the frequency of student usage of the various online tools was tracked and extensive data were collected via questionnaires documenting students' demographic background, preferred learning style, prior usage of technology, satisfaction with the course and academic achievement. This paper focuses on the results of the research study that examined how the students responded to and coped with teaching material presented and accessed in this format.
Weiss
Patrice L Tamar
PL
Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. tamar@research.haifa.ac.il
Schreuer
Naomi
N
Jermias-Cohen
Tali
T
Josman
Naomi
N
D000328:Adult; D020375:Education, Distance; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006804:Ergonomics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000193:education*; D009862:Online Systems; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*