How To Use Twitter To Train Healthcare Students In 3 Steps

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What can be said in 140 characters? To be honest a lot can be said between the first and last word that can change the world. It can start a revolution or raise awareness for a cause. The power of Twitter to shape the world is undeniable.

It brings people from all over the world into the global town square to air their thoughts, hopes and dreams for the world to latch on to. Twitter is a powerful tool that can also be used to change the worldTwitter healthcare and educate healthcare students at the same time. Some might say; how can Twitter possible be used to educate healthcare students? The answer is based on 3 simple concepts:

Study In Real Time

Utilizing Twitter to train healthcare students is easy once you set up your Twitter account.  Twitter allows you to communicate instantaneously with anyone on the platform.

This allows you to have real time conversations with your cohort about study material, class assignments and other relevant information. Organizing a study session is as simple as asking your friends to follow you and starting a conversation.

The average person reads about 300 words per minute, so a study session should be easy for everyone to keep up with.

The Hashtag

The # sign or hashtag is by far the most important symbol in the Twitterverse. It serves a dual purpose. It allows you to organize your tweets and helps you find them when you need them.

For example say a student wants to start a subject on ICD-10, all they would have to do is enter #ICD-10 and the tweets covering this subject with this hashtag handle can be found with a search.

The hashtag makes finding and organizing your conversations efficient and easy to manage. Hashtags allow you to create communities of people interested in the same topic by making it easier for them to find and share info related to it.

Finding Information You Need

Along with bringing together people from all walks of life, Twitter is also an effective tool for disseminating information. Millions of Twitter users use their accounts to promote a certain agenda, spread ideas and information.

Twitter allows you to link and share web pages that you think are important. While researching information for an assignment you may find something interesting on the web.

The odds are that this website will have a Twitter share button for you to click. This allows your followers and classmates to see the website you shared making researching information a breeze.

When these three concepts are blended together you get a platform that allows you to organize in groups, find topics and research information effortlessly. Twitter can serve as a valuable tool in educating the next generation of healthcare professionals on a platform that they are accustomed to using. If you have any questions about this topic please contact us today.

E-Learning Boasts Benefits for the Healthcare Field

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Leonardo da Vinci, master artisan and unparalleled inventor, appreciated the fact that “learning never exhausts the mind.” One of history’s most creative personalities acknowledged the liberty, freedom, and benefit that learning not only grants the learners, but also their communities. Considering his fantastic forethought, it is not unlikely that da Vinci envisioned an educational paradigm as powerful as e-Learning.e-learning, e-learning benefits, e-learning healthcare

Students from the Renaissance to as recently as the 1980s shared a very similar experience. They were forced to travel from near and far to live and study at the universities of their choosing. Such restrictive conditions made it impossible for many potential students, without the luxury of placing their lives’ responsibilities on hold, to follow their dreams.

Fortunately, the inventive human spirit designed a much more encompassing educational model in e-Learning, offering a wealth of benefits to all of today’s motivated students. The advantages of e-Learning over the traditional model are quite encouraging for contemporary learners, especially in the healthcare field:

  • Tuition for e-Learning is very cost effective. Dow Chemical was accustomed to spending up to $95 per learner/per course when paying for the traditional classroom setting. When the corporation switched to the e-Learning standard, however, they discovered that they were only paying $11 per learner/per course. By moving their studies into the virtual world, the company saved $34 million annually. Ernst and Young experienced similar savings when they condensed 2,900 hours of classroom training down to 500 hours with the support of 700 hours of web-based learning and 200 hours of distance learning. While the training costs were cut 35 percent, Ernst and Young discovered that employee consistency and scalability actually increased. Individual learners will not only find a relative savings on a virtual campus, but they too will benefit from the quality instruction received.
  • In addition to being cost effective, e-Learning demonstrates an efficiency in time. e-Learners are better able to work at their own pace, so there is never a need to slow down for lagging students. Social interaction, a common delay in any classroom environment, is not a factor in the web-based classroom. Plus, learners do not have to waste time traveling to and from another venue since the virtual classroom is readily available at their fingertips.
  • The American Psychological Society commissioned a nine-year study of e-Learning to determine its effectiveness. The research concluded that “learners learn more using computer-based instruction than they do with conventional ways of teaching, as measured by higher post -treatment test scores.” The types of learning that have been found to be particularly successful in the virtual classroom are those that focus on information and knowledge, and processes and procedures. Indeed, e-Learning students typically demonstrate increased gains in test/certification scores and in the level of mastery displayed on the job.
  • Lastly, e-Learning is advantageous to the environment. Web-based students do not increase Carbon Dioxide emissions when traveling to and from campuses. The e-Classroom also boasts paper free communications, instead relying on such tools as email, PDF manuals, and synchronous classrooms. While such environmental factors are perhaps not the main rationale that most students use to select their higher educational institutions, it is just another layer of the exceptional efficiency offered by the virtual classroom.

The healthcare field is fortunate to be at the forefront of the e-Learning revolution. Like da Vinci’s innate desire to seek out the deepest level of understanding, Avidity Medical Design possesses an unparalleled enthusiasm to equip future healthcare workers with the extensive knowledge they need to be successful in the field’s highly competitive market. Please contact us today to uncover the power of e-Learning.

Positive Prognosis for Mobile Learning for Healthcare Professionals

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Mobile learning for healthcare professionals is alive and well. Many healthcare facilities are cashing in on the ease and convenience of mobile devices for learning and continuing education credits. The methods of mobile learning are also changing as technology advances and becomes accessible to a wide array of professionals in more areas around the world.

1. Mobile Phones

As mobile phones get smarter, their ability to teach increases. Even the poorest countries, such as Nepal, have found they can use smartphones to learn more about proper medical care and research. Professionals are able to read, take pictures, share videos and discuss issues with others in remote corners of the world. Questions are answered faster and answers are accessible in the office right away.

2. Tablets

mobile learning for healthcareTablets are becoming more versatile and much easier to use in healthcare learning. They can stand alone and present information in a larger format, allowing students to see details from further away. Students can work through lessons on the tablet and gain hands-on experience in medical case management. Larger screens lead to easier online test taking, clearer demonstrations, and opportunities to review medical details that may otherwise be missed on a smaller screen.

3. Laptops and Desktops

Many healthcare professionals around the world use the standard computer simply because it saves time. There is no commute time to a classroom for continuing education courses, test taking is instantaneous, and classes can be completed in real time. The overhead cost in time saved equals a more successful practice. A higher number of healthcare facilities are using mobile learning to keep employees on site and to save valuable time.

Mobile learning has opened so many doors for the healthcare field that it is nearly replacing brick-and-mortar learning. It makes sense to keep doctors and nurses on site while they learn, and it costs less to bring an educator into the building. Learning from a mobile device is the education of the future, and it can be expected to continue in the healthcare field.

To talk more about this, or anything else, please Contact Us. Thanks!

Mobile Learning: A Revolution In The Making

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The advantages of mobile learning and the steps that can be taken to optimize the mobile learning experience for healthcare students and professionals are boundless. With today’s technology, the opportunity to learn is literally in the palm of a student’s hand. There has never been a time in history when the power of knowledge has been so widely available to the world. Taking advantage of this technological breakthrough has enhanced the learning experience for every profession.

Mobile Learning Is The Future

America is the home of mobile tech and we love it. Here are a few facts that you may find interesting. Did you know that 58% of Americans own a smartphone? Did you know mobile learning avidity medical designthat 42% of Americans own a tablet? This means that the students of the future are increasingly going to demand learning solutions that fit their busy schedules. Why is this so attractive to students and professors alike? Mobile learning allows for convenience, flexibility, engagement and interactivity that is lacking in other instructional settings. The data is clear that mobile learning is the wave of the future.

Optimizing The Mobile Learning Experience

In order to optimize the learning environment for students and professionals, we must change the way we view learning. Learning is a lifelong process that doesn’t have an on and off switch. From the time a student wakes up until the time they rest their heads on their pillows at night, they are learning. Learning is a seamless experience that requires different tools for different situations. Wireless, Mobile, and Ubiquitous Technologies in Education or WMUTE are the tools that can be used to optimize and revolutionize the learning experience. Click here

Design With A Purpose

Our core mission here at Avidity Medical Design is to develop curriculum that is informative, challenging, comprehensive and holistic. Staying up to date on trends in medicine is paramount to success. We design healthcare courses and review each course for technical accuracy. Regardless of the subject matter, we design courses that are engaging, innovative, and that support key learning objectives.

Sheila D. McCray, MS, CCS, CCS-P, is the principal of Avidity Medical Design, an instructional design consulting firm specializing in creating e-learning and blended learning for both the educational and corporate sectors.

Students who complete courses developed by Avidity Medical Design will have the knowledge and confidence needed to optimize work performance and achieve greater job satisfaction. Contact us today about our services and how we can help your students achieve excellence in the field of healthcare.

Hiring a Healthcare Course Writer vs. Creating Your Own Content

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A common scenario in healthcare e-Learning goes something like this: A healthcare organization places a strong emphasis on education. For years they avidity medical design healthcare instructorhone their patient education programs, keep staff up to date with certifications, and develop some basic healthcare courses to provide additional training. They watch a live demo, are empowered by what they see, and they begin to move forward with curriculum development. This is where the problems start.

Becoming a healthcare course writer is not an easy task. Oftentimes people know what they want to say but have no idea how to say it. If they do manage to get the words on paper, they get lost in the world of learning management systems and authoring tools. They also discover that they must function as healthcare subject matter experts as well as healthcare course writers to ensure that the course is technically accurate. Before long, months go by and the project is scrapped.

This scenario underscores the importance of hiring an experienced healthcare instructional designer. Ideas for healthcare education often land in the virtual trash can before they ever reach the storyboard stage of development. This happens because the possibility of outsourcing course development was never considered. A talented healthcare course writer can collaborate on ideas and cultivate those that already exist in order to create a comprehensive course that is technically accurate and gets the job done.

Avidity Medical Design expands healthcare training to reach a broader base of clients. Whether you need help preparing staff for the transition to ICD-10 medical coding, or you need to train nurses on the fundamentals of patient assessments, you can have a visually pleasing course created and uploaded to your learning management system.

If you need help developing an in-depth course that accurately meets the learning objectives for your particular healthcare specialty, contact us. We will work with you to achieve your goals for curriculum development.

Smartphones, Tablets, iPODs and iPADs: What Do They Mean for the Healthcare Classroom? Let’s Take a Look.

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More and more students are discovering the benefits of taking college courses online using smartphones, tablets, iPODs and iPADs. Students can review lecture material, study for finals, and take exams at home or while sitting in a café or a restaurant, for example. Although many people have taken advantage of mobile technology for general education purposes, healthcare practitioners may wonder what smartphones, tablets, iPODs and iPADs have in store for the future of healthcare education.

smartphones, tablets ipods ipads avidity medical designAccording to an article found here, “44% of medical students are digital omnivores, using a smartphone, tablet, and computer routinely in an academic or professional capacity.” This has increased over the years ever since these options were made available to students.

Mobile devices are a great way for students to learn on the go, as well as in the traditional classroom. As stated in another blog, titled, Benefits of Mobile Devices in the Classroom, “The mobile approach can encourage student engagement with the content. For example, students can answer polls, tweet questions, and look up information during lectures.” The same is true for students in the healthcare arena, who are studying to become medical transcriptionists, medical coders, and registered nurses, for example. Using mobile devices, a student who is studying to become a medical transcriptionist can respond to polls about transcribing medications in discharge summaries, history and physicals, and emergency room records. A future medical coder can tweet questions about how to assign the correct ICD-10-CM code for a postsurgical mechanical device complication, or how to assign the correct CPT codes for injections, infusions, and critical care. A nursing student can research lecture material on patient case management, sterile gloving, and right and left heart catheterization. Using smartphones, tablets, iPODs, and iPADs each of these students can enrich their learning experience both in and out of the healthcare classroom.

Avidity Medical Design can help you develop healthcare courses that support and encourage medical mobile learning. We develop healthcare curriculum designed to help your students immediately transfer what they learn in the classroom to the doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital setting. We specialize in both e-Learning and blended learning for both the educational and corporate sectors.

Sheila D. McCray, MS, CCS, CCS-P, the principal of Avidity Medical Design, has an M.S. in Instructional and Performance Technology and holds certifications in Captivate, Dreamweaver, Sharepoint, MS Office, and multiple healthcare-related areas. She is also a certified online instructor, medical coder, medical biller, and medical transcriptionist with an extensive background in healthcare information management. She designs curriculum for all areas of healthcare, as well as general education curriculum for K-12 students.

Feel free to contact us for more information on how we can incorporate innovative mobile learning strategies into your healthcare classroom.

Apply The ARCS Model of Motivational Design to Healthcare e-Learning

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applying the ARCS model of learning avidity medical designAn effective e-Learning course must not only educate, it must stimulate and motivate. One of the most fundamental methods of motivational design is John Keller’s ARCS Model. John Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivational Design includes four elements that are designed to motivate students to learn: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Innovative educators have long used the ARCS Model to improve learning outcomes by stimulating and maintaining student motivation. The ARCS Model becomes even more critical from the standpoint of healthcare instructional design because a lack of learning motivation can have a detrimental impact on patient care.

Let’s take a look at how the four elements of the ARCS Model, Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction, would be implemented in the context of healthcare instructional design:

1. Attention – Keller uses “inquiry arousal” to gain the learner’s attention. Inquiry arousal means incorporating questions or problems in the curriculum that are designed to be solved by a group of students. Case studies that require active participation, such as those dealing with specific patient scenarios, diseases, or other illnesses can be useful in gaining and sustaining attention.

2. Relevance – The curriculum should include examples that are relevant to connect to the student’s own experience(s). According to this element of the ARCS Model, if students can correlate their prior experience(s) to the new skills that they are learning, they will be more motivated to learn.

3. Confidence – Learners must have confidence in their ability to succeed if they complete the course. They must know that they will learn valuable skills that they can transfer to the real-world environment and immediately apply in their normal workday.

4. Satisfaction – Keller states that learning should be rewarding so that students see the value of what is being taught. This makes them more motivated to learn. One way to increase learner satisfaction is to allow students to practice the new skill being taught or to apply the new knowledge being attained in a live setting. For example, healthcare practitioners could demonstrate methods of gathering vital statistics, comparing test results, and analyzing recorded data in the doctor’s office or triage unit.

Contact us to learn more about the ARCS Model of Motivational Design, and how we can incorporate this model into your healthcare curriculum to motivate your students to learn.

4 Ways to Motivate Healthcare Students to Learn in the Classroom

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applying the ARCS model of learning avidity medical designHealthcare can be a challenging subject to learn, especially since there are so many areas of healthcare that require fundamental knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, medical coding, and other areas of allied health. If you are working as an instructional designer, especially if you are developing courses in healthcare, you must develop courses that not only educate, it also stimulate and motivate. One of the most fundamental methods of motivational design is John Keller’s ARCS Model. John Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivational Design includes four elements that are designed to motivate students to learn: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Innovative educators have long used the ARCS Model to improve learning outcomes by stimulating and maintaining student motivation. The ARCS Model becomes even more critical from the standpoint of healthcare instructional design because a lack of learning motivation can have a detrimental impact on patient care.

Let’s take a look at how the four elements of the ARCS Model, Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction, would be implemented in the context of healthcare instructional design:

1. Attention – Keller uses “inquiry arousal” to gain the learner’s attention. Inquiry arousal means incorporating questions or problems in the curriculum that are designed to be solved by a group of students. Case studies that require active participation, such as those dealing with specific patient scenarios, diseases, or other illnesses can be useful in gaining and sustaining attention.

2. Relevance – The curriculum should include examples that are relevant to connect to the student’s own experience(s). According to this element of the ARCS Model, if students can correlate their prior experience(s) to the new skills that they are learning, they will be more motivated to learn.

3. Confidence – Learners must have confidence in their ability to succeed if they complete the course. They must know that they will learn valuable skills that they can transfer to the real-world environment and immediately apply in their normal workday.

4. Satisfaction – Keller states that learning should be rewarding so that students see the value of what is being taught. This makes them more motivated to learn. One way to increase learner satisfaction is to allow students to practice the new skill being taught or to apply the new knowledge being attained in a live setting. For example, healthcare practitioners could demonstrate methods of gathering vital statistics, comparing test results, and analyzing recorded data in the doctor’s office or triage unit.

Contact us to learn more about the ARCS Model of Motivational Design, and how we can incorporate this model into your healthcare curriculum to motivate your students to learn.

If you are interested in taking an online healthcare course, consider enrolling in the course entitled, “How to Learn in the Healthcare Classroom (and ANY Classroom) (in 10 EASY Steps!)” offered by Avidity Medical Design Academy. Click here to learn more about this course. If you are interested in purchasing scented candles and soaps that promote health and wellness through inspirational messages, visit Avidity Medical Scentations to see our current product offerings. 

Healthcare e-Learning for Rural Healthcare Professionals

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The continuing ascension of e-learning presents increasing access to education and training virtually from anywhere, at anytime, especially in the most rural parts of America, where access to resources are typically few and far between.  The resource with the highest priority for access in rural America is access to healthcare. Although healthcare is typically thought of in terms of patient access, it can also be thought of in terms of continuing education for healthcare professionals.

healthcare curriculum development avidity medical designRural healthcare professionals are as significant as their urban counterparts, especially with respect to the need for ongoing professional development.  Continuing education courses are necessary for maintaining certification and professional licensure.  The ongoing requirements for maintaining a nursing license, for example, are the same for nurses in both rural and urban areas.

E-learning for rural healthcare professionals transcends boundaries for specific healthcare specialties.  Given the increasing centralization and bureaucratization of the healthcare industry (i.e, Obamacare, HMOs, PPOs, and so on), continuing education for healthcare professionals is crucial to ensure high-quality patient care.

Consider a company such as Avidity Medical Design, which develops curriculum for all areas of healthcare.  Sheila D. McCray, MS, CCS, CCS-P, the principal of Avidity Medical Design, offers customized learning solutions for both the educational and corporate sectors.  Customized e-Learning courses help rural and urban healthcare organizations meet state licensing requirements, retain staff, and meet short- and long-term goals for healthcare training and professional development.

Contact us for more information on healthcare curriculum development, review and analysis of your existing healthcare courses, and additional healthcare training opportunities.

Management Participation is Fundamental to Successful Healthcare e-Learning

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When it comes to healthcare e-learning, multiple studies show that management should be involved in each stage of the curriculum development process. This is crucial for obtaining quality deliverables and measurable results that accurately reflect changes in healthcare. When you are looking for an instructional design service, ask how they will address management participation.

healthcare e-learning avidity medical design Specializing in creating blended learning solutions for both the educational and corporate sectors, we have an extensive background in healthcare as well as instructional and performance technology. This positions us to respond to the frequently expressed concerns of many managers:

Management Expertise: We understand the role of key stakeholders with regard to choosing the right content for curriculum development. If you are already working in the healthcare field, you may play a role in choosing the subject matter, mapping course objectives, determining your target audience, prioritizing the schedule for course deliverables, and maintaining cost efficiency. We can work with your priorities.

Real World Impact: Of course, e-learning is advantageous when it comes to cost and convenience. However, it also needs to deliver results and significant value. We can demonstrate that employees will be able to immediately transfer what they learn in our curriculum to their real world environment.

Full Customization: The best instructional design strategies incorporate higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which can be adapted to meet the needs of different students and different workplace settings. Our healthcare courses are tailored to your needs. You can choose a single topic, or create your own topic from a combination of healthcare subjects. We design curriculum in medical coding (including ICD-10 training courses), medical billing, medical claims processing, medical transcription, health information management, healthcare statistics, healthcare reimbursement, anatomy and physiology, dental assisting, and many other areas (including areas not directly related to healthcare). We can also train your healthcare trainers.

Avidity Medical Design specializes in all areas of instructional design for the healthcare industry. Contact us now to see how we can help you start developing your next course, and how we can help you meet your short- and long-term objectives for content development.