MODULE 6: Wrapping it up

What did you like or dislike about taking an asynchronous online course?

Probably the greatest advantage for me in taking an asynchronous online course such as this was the ability to work on modules and assignments when the timeframe fit my schedule. I actually started some of the assignments for this course while I was with a group of my students in Taiwan….now that is long distance learning! Additionally, when limitations in health prevent completing a module assignment at a specific deadline, the timeframe can be and was adjusted.

This course lends itself to being an online course by the nature of the material being presented. After all, if one is to become more savvy and comfortable with computers, software, electronic tools, then there is no better way than to immerse the learner into the subject matter. This was a course which assisted the learner in learning by doing. Some of it was by trial and error, but still a very valuable learning experience. This course reminded me of my most favorite course of all time. It was at the University of Maryland in my graduate program. In that course, the students showed up for the first day of class. We were instructed to go forth and design an interactive program related to nursing for the internet. The faculty mentor said something to the effect of, “see you on the final class day!” Now, remember, this was back in 1996. I never even heard of HTML let alone programmed it to do something on the computer. I learned volumes above and beyond the course objectives in that class. This class held a similar appeal to me. Instead of reading about blogs, wikis, CDSS, and EHR, we actually were able to experience them and work with them.

What topic did you learn the most about and what was your favorite topic?

Well, it is hard to find just one favorite topic. I did find it interesting that you can teach this ole’ dog new tricks. I think my kids are newly impressed that I have developed a blog, understand wikis, actually facebook and, most recently, downloaded applications on my new IPhone. But I think the topics I learned the most about, and were my favorite, were the sections related to the different tools available to help make decisions in the clinical environment. Also, the topics of CDSS and the HON were very interesting as well.

What did you like least?

Probably what I liked the least was the topic of Coding and classification of clinical data and the standardized taxonomies, vocabularies and coding systems topics. Although necessary, I found the subject matter a bit dry.

Do you have any other comments for us?

I enjoyed reading the thoughts and blogs of the other students as well as getting to know them a bit more as well. Unfortunately, I did not find the opportunity/time to respond to as many as I would have liked to. Maybe a suggestion for next time is to pair people up or place them in small groups where they need to comment back on the blogs.