Curriculum Development

Pedagogy and Curriculum Development:  This course is an overview of the human body for non-majors students and those preparing for healthcare careers.  However, allied health also has a survey class of the human body (AHE 110) and I wanted to clarify the differences between these two classes including the population of students needing this class.  First I worked with Brent Leithauser and Terri Glazewski in the Allied Health department to compare AHE 110 and BIOL& 175 to determine how these classes were different and the target student populations for each class.  The biggest difference is BIOL& 175 is a lab science class for natural science credit on the direct transfer agreements allowing non-majors to receive natural science credit for this class.  AHE 110 is more for nursing assistant programs to learn the basics of the body as applicable to nursing and other health professions.  However, BIOL& 175 is also an excellent preparatory course for students eventually needing the BIOL& 241/242 A&P series.  Students in medical technology or other healthcare professions take BIOL& 175 when a lab class is needed. I also contacted the running start office to include BIOL& 175 as a lab science online course option for students.

The next step was to revise the course learning objectives to include diversity content in the curriculum.  Once the learning objectives were updated, I started to revise the course curriculum by adapting the labs to a combination of virtual labs and at home lab activities. I also made the course accessible with terminology support and UDL strategies.  The course has also been through the course accessibility review and OSCQR review processes and meets accessibility, regular substantive interaction, course design, and diversity, equity, and inclusion standards.  I also created a teaching guide and share the entire Canvas course with our associate faculty teaching BIOL& 175. This keeps the course consistent and helps our associate faculty by providing them with the vetted course meeting the accreditation standards.

Select the collapsible content below to view feedback on this curriculum for BIOL& 175.

Pedagogy and Curriculum Development:  Most textbooks and lab manuals are divided into systems of the body, so the first step was to determine the best way to break these resources into regional anatomy.  Fortunately, the material is listed within these systems by region, so taking the content on certain pages within the book can provide some resources for students.  However, since these are system-based, they do not connect to other systems of the body.  I looked online for a method to combine muscles with bones and found the clay modeling method where students use clay to mimic the muscles and attach the clay at the landmarks on the bones.  We created resource materials (example picture in this section above) that help students practice this in lab when on campus and I created videos to show students the connection between these muscles and bones for Canvas to review and when working outside of lab.  

The next step is to teach this in a regional approach. We start by learning the bones in the region and landmarks, then connect those to the joints in that region, and finally the muscles are attached to the bone landmarks at their origins and insertions and the actions describe movements of the bones and joints.  This is taught synchronously using Nearpod interactive lessons and then small group practice activities for students to learn the content.  

Select the collapsible content below to view feedback on this curriculum for BIOL& 241.

Pedagogy and Curriculum Development:  While I have implemented diversity curriculum in all my A&P courses, I am going to focus on discussing BIOL& 175 diversity curriculum development. In BIOL& 175 there are two different sections that incorporate diverse voices into the anatomy & physiology curriculum:  global connections in which students learn about the diversity of the human body and scientist spotlight where students learn about important contributions to the medical field by underrepresented scientists.  First I examined my existing content and textbooks for cultural diversity and there was some curriculum relating to the human body already present in the content, such as the diversity of skin coloration, a section of the integumentary system.  However, I wanted students to delve deeper into this diversity with all eleven systems in the body and develop an activity to help students engage with a profound understanding and connection to the content.  I scoured resources, reached out to A&P colleagues at HAPS (human anatomy & physiology society) and eventually developed content that allowed students to learn about different cultures, diverse populations, and scientists who made impactful contributes to each system of the body.  The assignment for these two sections includes a discussion forum where students discuss the contributions of the scientists, the connections to the course material we are learning in that system, and impacts on their own lives or connections they wanted to share about the system in their culture that were not directly highlighted in the course module.

Pedagogy & Curriculum Development:  As the pandemic continued, I was able to adjust the labs to offer limited grounded labs following safety procedures and holding synchronous virtual lab sessions.  I began using this format in the fall 2020 quarter to accommodate students needing in person classroom support for the lab activities.  Initially students would attend a virtual lab session to learn the lab content and those wanting additional support could attend an optional lab session on campus later in the week.  This gradually evolved as pandemic restrictions were lifted and morphed into a hyflex model of lab instruction where students could select which version (synchronous, grounded, or asynchronous) met their academic needs, safety concerns and preferences regarding the pandemic.  

The curriculum that came from this was an interactive online anatomy and physiology lab that was initially delivered virtually to students, called Lab Gab.  Canvas lab materials consisted of online images of models found in the lab, microscopic images, and mini-lecture videos for students to examine the lab at home.  Lab Gab took those at home labs and included interactive Jamboard activities during the synchronous virtual lab sessions for students to get instruction on the lab content.  The curriculum developed during the pandemic can still be used for students to review material with models that are not available to them at home or if they were unable to come to class on campus.  

You can learn more about Lab Gab and it's potential uses as pedagogy post-pandemic in this Lab Gab presentation I gave to the STEM division, which includes an example of lab gab from BIOL& 242. The video below shows the online companion material for this example urinary anatomy lab gab.

Pedagogy & Curriculum Development: The content of the academic & career module is an asynchronous, self-paced, weekly step-by-step process through the transfer application beginning with determining their career choice and writing goals for the quarter.  This module continues the initial career exploration begun in STEM100 classes by  building each week on the previous lesson as they work their way through researching schools, collecting information for their applications, course advising and registration, writing the application essay, and introducing them to other students in the class with similar career interests.  The academic and career module continues in the second A&P series class, BIOL& 242, where students review their career in more depth by exploring interviewing professional in their career, set goals for the quarter, and work weekly on developing their personal essays for the transfer application.  Each week, I provide feedback on the assignments submitted which gives students support in their transfer process.