Instructional Methods in Health Professions Education

This class is a *mainly* theory class although they do talk about particular instructional skills in some of the lectures. The lectures cover adult learning theory, intended learning outcomes, instructional design and assessment, teaching technology, and the techniques of knowledge transfer, skill development and attitude development. There is no required reading and the references for each lecture 'unit' are pure gold for further/advanced information. The assessments are quizzes and peer reviews. For the most part, the class was well-paced although toward the end, the lectures felt rushed since there was a LOT of information presented in them. Sometimes it felt like a laundry list rather than pulling out general rules/universal themes which are then augmented with examples.

The units are released weekly, so you can't do this course in a matter of days unless it's at the end of the course. My only gripe about the weekly release is that by the end of the eight weeks, I had forgotten some of the material in the first few units and needed to review them. My recommendation (if the course instructors are reading this) is to include review questions at the beginning of each new unit so the material is consolidated and stays fresh.

The heart of this class is participation in the discussion forums and self/peer assessments, so Do Them. You'll get about 25% out of the class otherwise. It was joy to connect with other students from around the world and see their point of view, and I learned a lot of things from them. There are quizzes and I found them mainly as a review for the material rather than a true test of concepts.

This class is geared toward a teaching health professional particularly those teaching US medical students and residents, but the lectures were universal enough that they will apply to most locations and health professions (and do judging from the discussion forums). I have zero educational background and I was able to follow the lectures without issue. The approach to the topics seems in-depth enough that an intermediate teacher might gain something as well, but I don't know about the advanced teacher.

It was very complimentary with the other UMich course, Clincal Teaching and Assessment, which I took concurrently.