PTA 130 NEEDS ANALYSIS SUMMARY
A needs analysis was conducted at Pennsylvania Institute of Technology to determine the trajectory of the course re-design for PTA 130. The request for the course re-design was made by the associate dean of academic affairs. The driving factors behind the request was to make the course more appealing, engaging, interactive, and competitive with other online colleges.
Data was collected using a combination of student and instructor interviews and surveys. In total, 4 students and 3 instructors participated in person-to-person interviews. In addition, 9 of the 17 targeted students participated in a survey to correspond with the student interviews. The focus of both the students interviews and surveys were: demographic info, troubleshooting issues, user experience, and class experience.
Below is a summary of the issues, recommendations, and conclusions collected from a 19-page needs analysis report. Enjoy!
Goals
PTA 130 Project Goals
- Improve aesthetics of current course designs
- Design Canvas pages
- Redesign PowerPoint slides
- Improve information architecture in Canvas and course materials
- Create interactive course content
- Create better critical thinking strategies for students
- Improve instructors’ ability to design slide presentations
- Provide a platform for instructors to create, edit, store and share videos
- Introduce online discussion boards/forums to increase student engagement
- Improve and track student engagement
Business/Stakeholder Goals
- Increase student retention
- Keep up with student demand for online classes
- Keep up with technology
- Supply a variety of learning modalities to students during COVID and beyond
- Increase the use of active and interactive learning techniques
- Increase social, academic and functional engagement in online learning
- Increase geographical range or “footprint” for student enrollment
- Compete with larger online universities
- Provide new never before seen online programs to students to expand market reach
- Have the majority of degree programs go from 20% online enrollment to 80% online
- Double enrollment in 5 years
- Improve state online ranking from 10 to 9
Issues Identified
- Canvas was not being utilized.
- Too much reliance on email.
- Students complained of cluttered inbox, difficulty keeping track of emails.
- Students expressed need to have all content “in one place.”
- Faculty using Microsoft forms to implement exams instead of Canvas.
- Faculty discomfort with teaching online; average score 5.3/10.
- Hard to “read the room;” see if students understand material.
- Zoom lectures decrease student engagement.
- PTA is very hands-on and there is a strong need to be and/or simulate in-person.
- Course timeline is too short/condensed.
- Course design needs to be more uniform.
- Students are not retaining information from prerequisite courses well.
- Students stated that learning PTA 130 content is “overwhelming.”
- Expressed a need for interactive content to help with visualization of difficult, didactic material.
- Students had difficulty with medical terminology
- Heavy reliance on PowerPoints and lectures to deliver content.
- PowerPoints described as “cluttered” by students.
- Class discussions are minimal and based around student questions.
- No online discussions are being implemented.
Recommendations
- eLearning team will continue to train PTA Faculty in the use of Canvas in one-on-one and group sessions.
- eLearning team will check-in with the PTA faculty monthly until August to ensure Canvas is being used effectively.
- PTA faculty will transition to using Canvas for exams.
- eLearning team will analyze the PhysioU app being used by PTA faculty to determine its effectiveness and the need for additional digital applications.
- eLearning team will work with faculty to explore more interactive and active learning options to make the online portions of the PTA 130 course more engaging and better at simulating “real-life.”
- eLearning team will work with the instructor to create a more “gamified” experience.
- Explore 3rd party applications specific to diseases and topics where students struggle.
- Other games can be created in-house using Articulate 360 software.
- PTA department should investigate implementing a remedial medical terminology course like what was done for Bio 140.
- eLearning team will recreate/redesign a few selected PowerPoint decks.
- The redesigned decks will be used as guides and templates for the instructor.
- An eLearning team member will go over the redesigned decks and teach the instructor better strategies for slide layout, design, and information architecture when creating future PowerPoints.
- Devise more active learning techniques and strategies to reduce the reliance on standard slide-based lectures.
- The goal is to have teachers break up their lectures into smaller “chunks” and find activities that can be interspersed between lecture segments.
- Students can be given graded case study discussions.
- A case study can be posted in a Canvas Discussion and students can respond either individually or in groups with treatment options for a patient.
- Students can be required to look at one or more posts and respond with appropriate feedback.
Conclusions
- Students were satisfied with the level of individual attention received from instructor.
- Generally positive remarks for PTA faculty.
- 5/10 average for overall satisfaction with PTA 130 class experience.
- Canvas not being utilized contributed to the overall confusion students experience with PTA 130.
- The PTA 130 course will benefit from an improved design aesthetic at both the course level and with PowerPoints.
- The goal for PTA 130 and other courses at P.I.T. is to become more activity driven.
- The PTA students interviewed had a strong preference for a more hands-on, lab format.
- The goal is to make in-person lecture classes function more like workshops and labs.