Online learning: The potential for occupational therapy education

Abstract

Online learning continues to have a significant impact on higher education. Increasingly students seek a combination of online learning and face-to-face instruction at undergraduate and graduate levels and occupational therapists ask for online continuing professional development opportunities. However, occupational therapy educators have been slow to adopt web-based instructional technology. This paper presents background information on the use of web-based learning in the general sphere of higher education and outlines the current range of usage in occupational therapy education. Research findings are presented to stimulate discussion regarding online learning and occupational therapy professional socialisation, student satisfaction and outcomes. There is a fine line between full and partial online course delivery, so research on technology-enhanced campus-based delivery is also included in the review. Evidence suggests that blending combinations of technologies with computer mediated learning enhances interaction and could address the higher order learning needs of professional programmes such as occupational therapy.

The flexible learning needs and preferences of regional occupational therapy students in Australia

“…However, there were few significant differences found between male and female flexible learning preferences. This reflects other studies, which found gender did not play a significant role in flexible learning preferences of students, even with predominantly female cohorts (Hollis & Madill, 2006).…”

Course redesign to promote local and global experiential learning about human occupation: Description and evaluation of a pilot effort

“…I received the Fellowship in March 2012 and began the second phase of my course redesign in the subsequent summer. The limited occupational therapy scholarship on teaching and learning [15][16][17] offered little guidance for this aspect of the course redesign, but it did suggest that new instructional designs 18 related to online technologies 13,19 and synchronous student collaborations 20 showed promise, especially when coupled with structured reflection 20 . (More recent examples of technology-based international occupational therapy educational collaborations 21 were not published when I undertook the course redesign.)…”

Development of a CD-ROM on written language for the continuing education of elementary school teachers

“…Universities that adopt DE as an educational modality save money without sacrificing quality. In addition, the effectiveness of the DE is related to the time flexibility, which is no longer found in education 15 . DE also offers an individualized study that is adjusted to the pace of the learner, who selects when and where to study.…”