FACULTY ORIENTATION. Pre-Health

Transcription

1 FACULTY ORIENTATION Pre-Health Health Sciences Online Degree BSc & BScH

2 Pre-Health TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Overview 2 History and Environmental Scan 3 Market Analysis 4 Marketing Plan 5 epre-health Program Overview 6 Competency Framework 7 Instructional Design 8 Technology 9 Educational Scholarship 10 Admissions 11 Appendices Pre-approval form QBC final report market analysis QBC final report business case Draft curriculum faculty and courses 2015 Competency framework Program learning outcomes and competencies Course development/instructional design process Justification/rationale for selection of BrightSpace and Entrada Course approval paperwork for each course involved in epre-health Quality assurance for online courses (modified from Arts and Science) epre-health website survey and survey results Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 1

3 1. OVERVIEW 1 The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) is developing a fully online, world-class, stand-alone four year Honours Bachelor of Science degree, called epre-health. World Class Program # Target Audience: Future health professionals, preparation for graduate programs, general interest. Target Enrollment: new students per year, ages Developed Specifically for Online Learning Anticipated Career Paths of Graduates: epre-health will offer the prerequisites for application to medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, dietetics, speech and language pathology, and advanced 2-year nursing programs, as well as public health sciences, and health sciences graduate programs. Pre-Health Timeline: The inaugural year of epre-health will begin in September 2016, with the first graduates completing the degree in Winter or Spring/ Summer of Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 2

4 2. HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN 2 The number of students participating in some type of online education is growing worldwide, which is due in part to the fact that prospective students are technologically ready to engage in online education. To get a better idea of what is currently offered in terms of online health sciences programs like the proposed epre-health program, Queen s Business Consulting (QBC) was hired in 2014 to perform an environmental scan. The results from QBC s environmental scan, as well as some research performed independent of QBC, are highlighted below. For additional details, please see the full QBC report in the appendix documents. The shift towards and acceptance of online education has been evident for a number of years. In 2011, a report from Contact North entitled the Outlook for Online Learning and Distance Education concluded that there is a growing need for expanded online learning in Canada, particularly in terms of full online program offerings so that students can complete entire programs via online distance coursework. This conclusion was supported in a 2011 survey of Queen s alumni and current university students conducted by Chris Conway, Office of Research and Institutional Planning at Queen s University, which determined that there was a preference for online programs over online courses. Despite the indication of increased interest in online learning, the adoption of online learning is slower in Canada than anticipated when compared to other countries. In part, this is due to a lack of national and provincial strategies for online education, which results in duplicated efforts, fragmented goals, and a focus on short-term initiatives (Canadian Council on Learning). However, the growth of traditional and online health education enrolments is more than double overall enrolment growth, indicating a potential market for online health education. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) lists 192 online or distance Bachelor programs in Canada, with Athabasca University, Thompson Rivers, and Laurentian University offering the most online programs. However, only 12 of these online programs exist in the Health Professions/Related Clinical Sciences/ Biological and Biomedical Sciences fields; six of these are online nursing programs and three are online health care administration programs. The shift towards and acceptance of online education has been evident for a number of years. Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 3

5 ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN - COMPARABLE PROGRAMS 2 Currently available online health sciences programs that are most comparable to the proposed epre-health programs are outlined in the table below, which was obtained from the QBC market analysis: The overall conclusion is that a lack of reputable programs in the online health education market exists. Scans of the top online health sciences degree programs in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and England revealed the same (see appendix). Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 4

6 3. MARKET ANALYSIS 3 In the summer of 2014, Queen s Business Consulting (QBC) was employed to conduct a market analysis for the proposed epre-health program. QBC surveyed 250 students who took online science or math related courses at Queen s University in the Winter 2014 and Spring/Summer 2014 semesters. Results from the survey indicated that those surveyed and interested in taking the Degree were more likely to be older, have dependents, and never studied physically on campus. According to QBC estimations, the final estimated target market size for epre- Health is approximately 5,852 students across Canada. Therefore, to attain 100 enrollments the first year the program is offered, and 300 enrollments by the second year of offering, epre-health would capture 5.1% of this target market, assuming that the market size is the same over a 2 year period. (Please see appendix for detailed calculations). The development of the Ontario Online Initiative indicates a desire for online learning within the province of Ontario. The proposed epre-health BScH program would meet this demand. Athabasca currently provides the only option for an online health sciences BSc degree. No other fully online pre-health sciences program is offered at any of the traditional universities in Canada. Due to Queen s University s long-standing reputation for quality education, it is anticipated that a fully online health sciences program offered by Queen s would attract students from across the country. A webpage promoting epre-health (prehealth.queensu.ca) also contains a survey regarding interest in the program, and to date 243 people have answered the survey. The survey results indicate that the respondents are from diverse age groups and are predominantly female (68%). In addition, 71% of the respondents have never before taken an online course through Queen s University, and 88% of the respondents are very interested or somewhat interested in the proposed program. The data from this report suggests that the survey accessed through the webpage is capturing an audience outside of students who are currently enrolled at Queen s University. (Please see appendix for full survey and results). No other fully online pre-health sciences program is offered at any of the traditional universities in Canada. DIVERSE AGE GROUPS 68% FEMALE EST. TARGET MARKET 5852 STUDENTS 88% RESPONDENT INTEREST DraFt june Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 5

7 4. MARKETING PLAN 4 Following the QBC environmental scan and market analysis, QBC was again employed in the fall of 2014 to determine a marketing strategy for epre-health. For the epre-health marketing plan presented, QBC applied the market planning model as found in Marketing Strategy: A Decision Focused Approach (Walker). According to QBC, the market for the epre-health program can be broken down into three segments: Health Care Riser (individual who is working within the health care industry at a lower level position, looking to improve career options e.g. dental assistant); Career Changer (individual with no experience in the health care industry, looking to change career paths and break into the industry); and High School Graduate (high school graduate wishing to pursue an education in health sciences who may be restricted to or has preference for online learning). Following an assessment of each segment, QBC concluded that the degree should be positioned to target Health Care Risers (typical age is 20-35) and High School Graduates (typical age is 17-21). QBC also recommended that the proposed epre-health program be marketed as a prestigious provider of accessible, high quality online education through a variety of advertising, such as website design, LinkedIn Advertising, Facebook ads, google adwords, fairs/ conferences, and content marketing. Finally, QBC recommended that the option of using some of the existing resources at Queen s and/or acquiring a part-time communications manager be explored. Please see appendix for the full QBC marketing plan report. DraFt june HealtH ScienceS Online Degree BSc Or BScH PAGE 6

8 5 5. Pre-Health PROGRAM OVERVIEW Our mission is to provide an outstanding, state-of-the-art online learning environment for the education of future health professionals. The curriculum will follow a competency-based framework in which the specific goal is to provide individuals with the credentials to pursue further education to become a health professional or to pursue graduate studies. The design of the epre-health program will be based on the following vision: ANATOMICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS O HEALTH AND DISEASE PHARMACOLOGY, TOXICOLOGY, AND THERAPEUTICS INFECTION, IMMUNITY AND INFLAMMATION K N O W L E D G E P I L L A R S CHEMICAL BASIS OF BIOLOGY; MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, BIOCHEKISTRY, METABOLISM CORE COMPETENCIES SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE S O C I A L C O N T E X T O F H E A LT H GLOBAL AND POPULATION HEALTH APPLIED RESEARCH METHODS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE DraFt june HealtH ScienceS Online Degree BSc Or BScH PAGE 7

9 Four knowledge pillars will form the foundation of the program and the societal context of health and disease will be interwoven throughout these pillars. The societal context of health and disease will not just cover treatment, but also health promotion and disease prevention (e.g. nutrition, physical activity, mindfulness, sleep hygiene). The core of the program will consist of competencies that will be embedded within the curriculum. These include the roles of: communicator, professional, collaborator, leader, and advocate. Each role will be considered an essential competency that must be mastered for successful completion of the program. epre-health will be designed as an online Honours Bachelor of Science program in the Faculty of Health Sciences that can be completed after the equivalent of four years of full-time study. Being an online program, learners of all ages from all over the world will be able to complete this program. The program will be committed to having an educational environment that engages learners using creative learning approaches (i.e. independent small group learning and facilitated small group learning activities). Career Paths: This program will offer the prerequisites for application to medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, dietetics, speech and language pathology, and advanced 2-year nursing programs, as well as public health sciences, and health sciences graduate programs. Timeline: Our goal is to be able to accept students into the first year of epre-health beginning September With continual development of the remaining online courses required for the program, we anticipate having all third year courses completed by the 2017 academic year, and all fourth year courses completed by the 2018 academic year. The first potential graduates would be at the end of the 2019 academic year. 5 Timeline for development and offering of epre-health DEVELOPMENT OF epre-health PROGRAM ALL 1 ST AN 2 ND YEAR COURSES AVAILABLE ONLINE ALL 3 RD YEAR COURSES AVAILABLE ONLINE ALL 4 TH YEAR COURSES AVAILABLE ONLINE GRADUATION OF FIRST COHORT Spring Pre-Health INAUGURAL YEAR CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT MEASURE +OPTIMIZE 2016 Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 8

10 6 6. COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK The epre-health Program is based on a unique framework which ties all assessments to students development of competencies which are based on the CanMEDS framework. Each role has been defined to accord with the program learning tracks and is aligned to each of the health professions. This enables students to see their progress at any point throughout the program, and to easily access and share their assignments, which are kept in a program portfolio. 1. Communicator Fluently exchanges and integrates visual, written, oral, and visual ideas, beliefs, and knowledge within and between stakeholder groups. 2. Advocate Promotes and defends scientific, moral, and/or ethical disciplinary values and principles within or between stakeholder groups. COLLABORATOR COMMUNICATOR ADVOCATE 3. Leader Leverages knowledge to guide, direct, and support (an) individual(s) and/or groups towards a predetermined and mutually beneficial end. 4. Scholar Summarizes, creates, and/or integrates current inter and intra disciplinary knowledge in the pursuit of extending understanding. PROFESSIONAL LEADER 5. Professional Upholds high standards in all endeavours to provide agreed upon products and services to stakeholders. SCHOLAR 6. Collaborator Leverages knowledge to negotiate relationships within a group that is greater than the summative value of its members. Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 9

11 HIGH-YIELD PREREQUISITES: An analysis of the prerequisites required for admission to a number of professional health programs across Canada (i.e. medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, advanced track nursing, physiotherapy) was undertaken. Based on the information gathered, the number of programs requiring a specific course was determined. These courses have been termed high-yield prerequisites and have been arranged according to rank order (see table below). For example, the greatest number of programs require a 3.0 unit course in statistics as a prerequisite, while much fewer programs require a 3.0 unit course in genetics. Based on this table, a number of courses were added as core or option courses in the epre-health curriculum to enable students to have access to a variety of courses currently required as prerequisites in professional health programs. 6 Note: For a full breakdown of which professional programs require which prerequisite courses, please see the appendix. Rank Science Courses Units Required (majority of programs) 1 Statistics 3.0 units 2 Biology 6.0 units 3 Chemistry 6.0 units 4 Biochemistry 3.0 units 5 Physiology 6.0 units 6 Organic chemistry 3.0 units 7 Physics 6.0 units 8 Anatomy 3.0 units 9 Calculus 3.0 units 10 Microbiology 3.0 units 11 Genetics 3.0 units Rank Arts/Humanities Courses Units Required (majority of programs) 1 English 6.0 units 2 Humanities/Social Science 6.0 units 3 Psychology 6.0 units Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 10

12 7. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN PROCESS 7 Our approach to developing epre-health courses is team-based and proceeds according to the following steps: STEP 1: Learning Outcomes: Draft and/or review the course learning outcomes. Assessments: Draft assessments that enable students to meet those learning outcomes. STEP 2: Gather Information: Instructional Design Assistants will help curate content with your guidance using a team approach to course development. Together with instructional designers and technologists, they will select appropriate strategies to convey the content, create storyboards, design user interfaces and collect materials as needed. STEP 3: Technology tools: We will create interactive e-learning content using technology tools, and work with you to figure out which learning objects and interfaces will work best with your content. We will build the template / interface from storyboards and mockups using Storyline 2 for each learning object. We will build multimedia learning objects where applicable. Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 11

13 8. TECHNOLOGY 8 Brightspace offers the freedom and flexibility to ensure that faculty members are empowered to teach the way they want to teach and individuals are inspired to learn the way they want to learn. It is designed to address a variety of educational needs and deliver on the promise of a more pervasive, perceptive, and personal learning experience. Brightspace is the learning management system that will interface with Entrada providing additional curriculum mapping, reporting, eportfolio, assessment and evaluation features. Entrada takes a different approach compared to a traditional Learning Management System. There are 7 major pillars that make up the Entrada ecosystem. The core functionality that exists in Entrada today is: Curriculum Mapping and Reporting Academic Scheduling and Calendaring Learning Management System Features Extensive Assessment and Evaluation Features Facilitated Learner eportfolio Faculty Accountability Community Social Integration Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 12

14 9. EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP 9 To make the excellence of the epre-health program transparent, we will evaluate students prior to, during, and upon completion of the program. Specifically, we will: Identify analytic processes that dynamically associate candidate demographics, interests, and application stream(s) to success during and after the program. This information will be used to improve our application processes, and provide dynamic student support. Track student successes across competencies and Program Learning Outcomes. By using a red flag system, we will be able to identify supports that are most needed by individuals and/or the cohort as a whole. Conduct comparative analyses to ensure our students meet or exceed traditional student performance. Track students to determine their relative success in applying for professional schools, graduate placement, and post-degree employment. This is of particular importance as a test of our competency framework, which represents a unique and increasingly demanded philosophy of teaching and learning. Survey students to determine the lived experience of our competency based undergraduate experience, and engage in a process of continual improvement. Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 13

15 10. ADMISSIONS 10 epre-health is designed to remain inclusive to our target demographic, many of which may not meet traditional Life Sciences application requirements. Our approach will establish three streams of entry into the program. Specifically, we will have traditional, experiential, and pipeline-based streams. Traditional. The traditional approach will use application criteria similar to those used in the current face-to-face life sciences program. Experiential. The experiential stream will allow all interested students to attend three first year courses that accurately portray the scientific, practical, and critical thinking requirements of the program. Success within these gateway courses will be required for program continuance. An orientation module outlining required knowledge, and course/program descriptions will be required prior to course application. In addition, a program administrator will be available for those entering through this stream. Pipeline. epre-health will be a cost effective means for traditionally underserved populations to participate in the program and gain the requirements for application to professional programs. As such, we will work with government and not-for-profit agencies to create alliances to provide financial and academic assistance to those within these populations who would like to attend. Entrance would likely be secured through a combination of traditional and experiential streams. DraFt june HealtH ScienceS Online Degree BSc Or BScH PAGE 14

16 APPENDICES Pre-approval form QBC final report market analysis QBC final report business case Draft curriculum faculty and courses 2015 Competency framework Program learning outcomes and competencies Course development/instructional design process Pre-Health Justification/rationale for selection of BrightSpace and Entrada Course approval paperwork for each course involved in epre-health Quality assurance for online courses (modified from Arts and Science) epre-health website survey and survey results Health Sciences Online Degree BSc or BScH PAGE 15