Abstract:

Online education can be a powerful and flexible tool in undergraduate education. Online classes allow the use of innovative technologies in which students can progress at their own pace. But there can be challenges in developing and maintaining class interaction as well as in encouraging group problem solving, particularly for asynchronous courses.

This presentation provides a description of a workbook developed for an asynchronous online course in Introduction to Epidemiology, the study of health within a population. Epidemiology involves methods, statistical techniques, and the identification of associations between risk factors and outcomes, and is best taught using materials that will engage students and enhance their critical thinking skills. When students hear information, read information and then apply it in a way in which they are physically and mentally involved, retention and understanding increase substantially compared to reading alone.

To facilitate this active learning, the workbook was designed to focus on the application of core epidemiological principles using individual and group activities, while expanding upon lecture materials, the traditional textbook, wikis, discussion groups, and a variety of multimedia internet resources already incorporated into the class. The workbook was designed in modules to match the overall course structure and students were given the option to complete work on activities within groups, with both self-graded and individually graded assessments. Assignments were developed using a scenario in which students were described as a participant in a “real-life” or fictional setting, such as an intern at a local health department or an investigator of an outbreak. Students were then challenged to develop a solution to a public health problem using either real or fabricated data as appropriate. They were encouraged to work collectively on the data analysis and Excel spreadsheets were provided in Blackboard to facilitate collaboration, as this more closely mirrors how epidemiologists work in the field.

Following an exercise, students then completed individual assessments of their learning in the module. Assessment included group memo writing assignments, the use of discussion boards and wikis to address issues as well as timed individual assignments based on the skills developed in the workbook. Working with a local publisher, it was possible to develop the workbook that followed the course syllabus and targeted specific content areas, which could be revised as needed. New advances in digital printing capabilities allow instructors to create class specific workbooks which can be printed for small runs and be easily updated.

The workbook was a professional looking, durable book can serve as a long term resource. Workbooks decrease the cost of textbooks as they can be fully targeted to specific class materials and the can be produced relatively inexpensively. While workbooks can also be put online, I chose to use a print workbook as it gave students a concrete source with class materials for review, and could be used during class as well as in the future. While this workbook was developed in the context of an epidemiology class, the core concepts and methods used could be applied to classes within a variety of fields.

Keywords:

Online, asynchronous, workbook, active learning, class interaction, epidemiology.