title: Secrets to creating effective and interesting educational experiences: tips and suggestions for clinical educators.
abstract: Genetic Counselors (GCs) spend years learning about genetics and practicing counseling techniques in classroom environments. From the learner perspective, teaching may seem straightforward: provide appropriate information, develop tests or assignments and submit grades. When asked to teach for the first time, however, clinicians suddenly realize that there is a lot more to education than standing in front of a class and talking. This article introduces clinical educators to strategies and learning principles that help make the teaching/learning process more interesting and successful for faculty and students alike. The instructional concepts presented here are useful across the entire spectrum of learning situations; a 1 hour discussion with a lay audience, a 3 hour workshop at a professional meeting, a 15 week graduate course, or a series of courses culminating in an advanced degree. The article offers suggestions for writing course competencies, selecting instructional approaches, embedding learning engagement options, leveling course content and choosing evaluation strategies.
authors.affiliation: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA. dseibert@usuhs.mil
authors.forename: Diane C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Seibert
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005817:Genetic Counseling; D005820:Genetic Testing; D005826:Genetics, Medical / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D017145:Models, Educational