Barry Westling

Kimberly, Pretesting is an optional activity, best used when little information about prior learning is known. Barry Westling

Christopher, Great! I think simpler activities but relevant work best. Videos, games, discussions, worksheets, reviews, these are examples that have worked for me in the past. Barry Westling

Christopher, Good analogy. We want our graduates to have the skills and knowledge for successfulness on the job. If we can contribute to students being better citizens in general, that's just an added bonus. Barry Westling

Kimberly, I agree,and therefore believe we need to all we can to be ready, organized and properly equipped to conduct each and every class thoroughly. The students perception of the instructors credibility can be formed by the degree to which the instructor is prepared. Barry Westling

Lynn , I think evaluation is as important as providing the course material. Students value our feedback and usually take our advice and suggestions with approval and care about their successfulness. Barry Westling

Paul, One way we show we care is providing valuable suggestions, advioce and encouragement, even if it's informal. The more frequent we can do this, the more trust, respect, and credibility an instructor will receive from their students. Barry Westling

Gina, Mid term reports are great. The more frequent we can give feedback, even if it's informal, student swill both appreciate and benefit from the valuable advice and suggestions from a conscientious instructor. Barry Westling

Cheryl, Good instructor communication involves progress made as much as being the facilitator of providing new information. Barry Westling

Paul, Right. Also, based on information from a pretest, I can empasize more or less on a given topic. The goal is to preserve valuable instructional time. Barry Westling

Gina, This is not an unusual problem for excelerated medical programs. New information is always emerging. Foundational theory can be challenging to cover thorougly. You touched on one key, and that is to be sure essential information is always thoroughly covered. Creative activities that involve students engaged and participation in their own learning is one method that can help fill-in some of the potential gaps. Barry Westling