Today's virtual classroom: assistant professor Lyndsay Fait's occupational therapy assistant students.
Turns out a $15 sheet of wallboard from Home Depot and a $20 sheet of sticky laminate from Amazon works in a pinch to teach students about respiratory anatomy and ventilator functions. Faculty and staff in Salt Lake Community College's Health Sciences division have been coming up with myriad ways to adjust to remote learning in a time of pandemic.
Respiratory Therapy program coordinator Brandon Andersen says losing lab time while trying to learn how to use a ventilator is difficult, so he also reached out to the company Xlung, which has a ventilator simulation program for a monthly fee. “Xlung wanted to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic and, after hearing about our situation, they granted all the students free access through June to their entire program,” Andersen says. “These programs will allow me to create specific simulation models with patient types and problems, save the scenario and send it to the students to problem solve.”
Students share their presentations online.
Nursing assistant professor Brian Hoskins teaches his pathophysiology students from his lab at SLCC’s Jordan Campus as everyone tunes in via Zoom on their devices at home. “I like having the resources around me, but I’m prepared to teach from home,” Hoskins says. Successful transition to remote learning has meant being flexible, finding creative ways to help students using, for example, online test reviews. The transition, he admits, was stressful for many students who were already stressed by the pandemic. “The good news is that most students have the right computer and are computer savvy,” he adds.
SLCC surgical tech students are watching videos downloaded to Canvas that were filmed by an instructor demonstrating needed skills using a GoPro setup, says Surgical Technology program coordinator Greg Maughan. The students review the skills and then film themselves demonstrating them before submitting them for instructor critique. One-on-one live skills labs are conducted using WebEx.
Katie (foreground) takes a snooze while Gabe Byars teaches from home.
Gabe Byars teaches occupational therapy (OT) in his East Millcreek home gym, laptop propped up on two wood boxes, with help from his “teaching assistant,” his gray-faced, 15-year-old lab mix Katie. Under his listed office hours on his email signatures is the URL for his WebEx link if you want to meet live to talk. This is the new “normal” – for now. Though OT coursework is highly hands-on, Byars says no classes were cancelled and no students have had to drop. “We have been creative with how we implement certain activities, especially those related to our lab courses,” he says. “For example, students have been passing off skills through video format, and they have been doing an excellent job!” Clinical placements at hospitals, rehab centers, clinics, schools and nursing homes, however, will have to wait for students in their last semester of the Occupational Training Assistant program. Graduation, therefor, has been put on hold, for now.
Physical therapy students, divided into small groups, are using the Microsoft Teams application to collaborate. On a Monday they look at videos that demonstrate an activity, and then students practice on family, roommates or with whomever they are quarantined. At the end of the week, Stacey Romney’s class meets in a remote live lecture and each group teaches their portion of the coursework to the other students. “There is something really cool about video chatting as a group and asking questions about techniques,” Romney says. “What I find really cool is to see classmates giving tips to each other in real time as we practice these techniques together.”
Gabe Byars (lower right), a client and students work on occupational therapy techniques.