Allied Health Education is an upper level online course, delivered via the Blackboard course management system, for students planning to pursue a career in education as an instructor in a dental hygiene or other allied health program. This is a methods-of-teaching course which provides the knowledge and skills related to both classroom and clinical teaching. In this course, students learn about components of classroom teaching, such as developing a lesson plan, designing and presenting a lecture, and creating test questions. Clinical instruction is another important part of a dental hygienist's teaching responsibilities. Students will be prepared to implement the skills during the practicum part of this two course sequence. The basic goals for this course are for students to: 1) Apply principles of instructional design in creating classroom lessons and lesson components (instructional objectives, teaching activities, and ways to assess student learning), 2) Develop effective ways to present instructional information (lecturing skills, active learning opportunities), and 3) Develop student evaluation procedures including tests and informal classroom assessments. Students who register for this course should have fundamental computer skills such as sending and receiving email, file saving, using a Web browser (such as Internet Explorer), and printing.

"It is extremely rewarding to be recognized by our peers for following the solid instructional design principles that we value and incorporate into all of our work. This honor is a strong affirmation that instructional design is essential to faculty developing online courses. Ultimately, online courses have to be judged by the learning outcomes of our students. By working as a team, we stay focused in aligning the goals, assessment, and methods of teaching that are most effective for our learners."