DEPARTMENT OF REHABILITATION SCIENCES
Responding to COVID by practicing the agility we teach. Exercise science, occupational therapy, athletic training, physical therapy — all disciplines require hands-on assistance, precise techniques and lots of supervised practice to master. But how do you pull that off in the midst of a pandemic? That was the chief challenge COVID posed when the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences had to suspend in-person learning in 2020. Prior to COVID, about 30% of the programs’ courses were virtual. So while it took a great deal of effort to transform the other 70% of classes for synchronous learning, it was within our wheelhouse. But each of our programs also has a lab feature where techniques are learned and practiced. And those skills are critical to graduation and certification. So faculty and staff went to work recording some labs and curating virtual lab content from websites and from the platform PhysioU. Then students would record themselves practicing the techniques, often using family and members of their COVID pod as “patients.” Though timeconsuming for all involved, it was a seamless and effective approach.
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MARIEB COLLEGE OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
By June 2020, some students were back on campus. For those returning to campus, the number of in-person labs increased to support social distancing and group sizes. Through all the hard work, uncertainty and moment-by-moment changes of 2020, we learned some new things. We found that our students can benefit through various modes of learning and that in-person learning is not necessarily always the best. We learned that students greatly valued the support of their families while studying from home. It relieved some of the stress. They also liked virtual office hours with their professors because it was more convenient. And finally, when classes went virtual, so did our problem-based learning discussion groups. Students liked the virtual discussion format so much that we are making it a part of the curriculum.
