Blended Learning in Radiologic Science

 

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 Call to Action 

 

Sometimes it takes a series of events to awaken the need for innovation in a reputable and successful program.  We can never forget that growth needs to  continually occur even before mandatory changes disrupt good practices.  Covid and the merging of Dallas Community College District and all their programs forced a light on student learning, time considerations, and learning outcomes. It unveiled a situation in learning that had to be reconsidered. Both face to face learning and online learning have best practices that when combined could fill the gap we had developed. 

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 Innovation Proposal 

 

When considering the areas that could be improved within the Dallas College Radiologic Sciences Program, it became clear that the biggest gap was in retention in several related courses.  After troubleshooting and polling fellow faculty in the content area, I came up with this Innovation proposal that best considered the elements that could be added and revamped using technology and online learning to create a blended model that could improve student outcomes and student engagement but also add flexibility from time constraints. 

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Literature Review 

 

The research in blended learning was very eye-opening.  The most interesting discovery I made was that this type of learning was far from new.  There were quite a few meta-analysis sources that had compiled many years of research on the subject. I never understood why people were driven to do research but needing to compose a literature review and not finding exactly the level of answers to the questions I was seeking, specifically in health science courses, opened my mind to doing my own research in this area.  This  literature review only scratched the surface of the deep-dive I did into this content and left me with more questions that I need to unlock the answers for before I will be satisfied.

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 Implementation Outline 

 

The implementation outline provided here is the scaled-back version of my first few attempts at considering how to do this effectively with so many unknowns. Considering the timeline of when our cohorts begin every Fall and every Summer, I wanted to get at least the first element launched as quickly as possible.

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  Annotated Bibliography

What is next in the journey for enlightenment as we unfold the best practices and best ways to proceed with the implementation of this disruptive innovation?  I have compiled some of the resources that I believe will be crucial in constructing the most successful framework for the next part of my journey.  This  annotated bibliography is composed mostly of items that I discovered in my initial literature review but I  would be more suited for this next phase.  I am certain that this list will change and grow as I start to construct the new courses for transition into the blended model.  It has a variety of sources to consider relevant elements for today's generation of students.  Technology, gender, race, learning styles, age, and other considerations such as effectiveness of online activities and quizzes are all elements to consider as I build this pilot program.