A Student Mobility Pilot at Miami Dade College, Medical Campus
Normally, a class full of students distracted by their cell phones or iPods would be a bad thing. However, those involved with the Physical Therapy Assistant Program(PTA) at the Medical Center Campus of Miami Dade College are actually excited about it.
That’s because the program recently began a pilot that handed out either an iPod Touch or iPhone to each of the 50 students in the program. This mirrors a growing trend in education, which has seen fewer laptops coming to class, and more pocket-sized devices replacing them.
But according to Mark Nestor, Medical Campus Chief Information Officer, the decision to purchase the mobile devices was not just about trends. “We’ve actually been looking at several core technologies for the classroom for a while now, and found that they all integrated very well with the products from Apple.”
Anita Kaplan, President of the Medical Campus, added that the interest in these technologies is driven by the desire to see students succeed. “ We have some amazing technologies on Campus,” she said. “And we’re only asking the faculty to utilize those that facilitate student learning.”
Those technologies include lecture capture, learning objects, a student response system, mobile reference materials, and a new breed of educational software that is now available through an online store know as the “App Store.” The App Store is built into both the iPod Touch and the iPhone, and allows students to download the software directly without a computer.
Lecture Capture is software that allows faculty to record their instruction during class, and upload the file to the Internet and make it available for student to watch within minutes. The result is a file that includes instructor video and PowerPoint presentations, and is fully indexed and searchable. “The goal for this technology was to allow students to have access to all of their lectures after class so they can spend more class time concentrating on the instruction rather than taking volumes of notes,” said Nestor.
PTA professor Ken Lee, Program Coordinator for the PTA program, added that faculty has embraced lecture capture because it not only improves student learning, but it is very easy to use. “If you can click start, and then hit stop, you can use this – it’s really that easy.”
In addition to providing recorded lectures, the faculty in the program also recorded as a series of learning object videos that demonstrate the proper application of physical therapy. “The students can see these videos before they even set foot in a lab,” said PTA professor Beatriz Melendez. “And they can watch them as many times as they need in order to make sure they are utilizing the proper technique.”
Both the lectures and the learning objects are available to the students for download via the College’s ANGEL and iTunes U sites. This allows the students to have everything they need in their pocket for review anytime, anyplace.
Finally, the students can download materials to their devices for extra reference. Taking the place of traditional flash cards is the Netter’s Anatomy application. The program allows students to manipulate images, test their knowledge with interactive quizzes, and easily look up additional information.
PTA professor Marlene Carmona added that the portable technology is ideal for students who are on the go. “Imagine a student in a clinical setting, having this application, having an electronic dictionary, having the Epocratesdrug guide, all in one device – it’s just a wonderful resource and a tremendous advantage for our students.”
The pilot will continue through the end of the year. Nestor said there are plans for a formal evaluation in the fall, with hopes that other programs at the Medical Campus will adopt the devices. “The launch of the pilot has gone very well,” he said. “And we believe making access to information easier will pay tremendous dividends to our students. We also think this has the potential to positively affect retention and learning outcomes since it has allowed us to change the way instruction is delivered to better fit how today’s students learn.”