With the increasing need and demand for quality health care in Texas comes the need to provide broader access to professional medical and allied health education. UT System's UT TeleCampus (UTTC) has begun to offer online education in a variety of health care topics.
UTTC Executive Director Dr. Darcy Hardy says the timing is right. “When the UT TeleCampus began offering online courses and degrees in 1999 the emphasis was on academic programs – starting with our MBA and our MEd in Educational Technology,” says Hardy.
“But as we’ve expanded the reach of the UT System for our academic campuses, we have been aware of the need to extend our medical, allied health and nursing education programs as well. To that end, we’ve begun to partner with our System’s health institutions, and believe that together we can address serious shortages in our state in various fields.
“In many ways health-related education is perfectly suited to the online environment,” she says. “Technology is available today that allows us to create innovative instructional programming that brings a realistic approach to the online classroom. For example, our Emergency Room Psychiatric case study module allows practitioners in the field to strengthen their understanding of proper emergency room diagnosis. The online format broadens the ability to reach our target medical audience – frequently shift workers or those who live and work in remote areas and are unable to commute to campuses. The anytime, anywhere delivery will help us better serve the needs of those working to create a healthier Texas.”
Academic offerings range from bachelor completion programs in health services or dental hygiene to courses in pediatric environmental health and nursing education.
Pediatric Environmental Health has been identified as a need in nursing education. “A traditional course was initially offered in the spring of 2005 in collaboration with UT Tyler College of Nursing and Stephen F. Austin State University,” says Larry Lowry, Occupational Health Sciences, UT Heath Center - Tyler. Lowry says he had strong interest in offering a distance course from both students and the national EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection. This prompted his group to apply for a UTTC course development grant to bring the course online.
The course launched this spring. All of the students in it are working full time, most have families with children and several are single moms. Some of the students, as well as the instructor, are experiencing their first online course.
“I am really excited about the expanded level of learning among these students,” says Lowry, who is teaching the Pediatric Environmental Health course.
“For example, a debate on the pros and cons of breast feeding was recently held where students randomly assigned to one of three groups had to document their respective side with evidence-based medicine and submit their group findings to a judges' group. The students did an extensive amount of research citing almost 20 peer-reviewed articles to support their sides of the debate,” says Lowry.
Lowry is pleased with the opportunities for interaction his online class provides. “We have good course content coupled with good course design. This makes for a terrific course with interactive learning and good feedback from the students. The amount and quality of the discussion far exceeded what would happen in a traditional classroom.”
The UT TeleCampus also offers continuing medical education (non-credit courses) via Professional Development Online (PDO), a not-for-credit arm of the UTTC’s online support. “In addition to the academic offerings, we were receiving requests from our institutions to offer non-credit programs online, with e-commerce capabilities, online registration and other bundled services,” says UTTC director Rob Robinson.
"PDO is our answer to that and provides an alternate venue for allied health and nursing education when continuing education or non-credit is the appropriate choice. We were able to use what we learned in the academic offerings to provide support for professional development,” Robinson says.
An overview of online offerings follows. Please see the UT TeleCampus website for complete listings at www.telecampus.utsystem.edu
Programs:
Bachelor’s Completion Program BAT – Health Services Technology
Bachelor’s Completion Program - Dental Hygiene
RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Blood Bank Technology
IMPRINTS Physical Therapy
Individual (non-program) Courses:
Health Care Delivery Systems
Toxicology
Genetics
Nutrition and Growth Development
Introduction to Clinical Laboratory Sciences
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Pain Management
Nursing Care at the End of Life
Spanish for Health Care Professionals
Pediatric Environmental Health
Laboratory Medicine
U.S. Health System Origins and Functions
Professional Development:
Psychiatry Emergency Room
Comprehensive Review in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences
Comprehensive Review in Clinical Cytogenics
Serology Laboratory 1
Immunology and Hematology
Human Blood Groups
Serology
Transfusion Therapy
Transfusion Service Practice
Donor Center Operations
Donor Center Practice
Serology Laboratory 2
Preceptor Training toward the Clinical Education of Nursing Students
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