UNMC online programs provide career development | Drafting

UNMC offers several Online programs which lead to diplomas or certificates. We met three graduates of the Master of UNMC Health professor teaching and technology program To ask questions about their experiences to complete one of these programs, which they learned and how it has had an impact on their work performance since.

Why did you register for this UNMC online program?

• Abbey Forgeret, MD, Associate Professor of Surgical Oncology: I felt as if I had a reasonable understanding of the basics of the way of being an educator but lacked the depth of the way of being an educator in the 21st century. A large part of my training was spotlights with transparency sheets. I wanted to be able to reach the learner in a modality with which he could resonate, but I did not have the skills. (After having audit some lessons), I immediately realized that it was what I needed. This is what I was looking for.
• Vanessa Crookshank, Associate Professor of Dental Hygiene, Colorado Mountain College: I worked at the central community college in Hastings, Nebraska, which is in fact my Alma Mater, where I obtained my dental hygiene school diploma. I worked there for four years as an educator. It is a diploma of partner and to teach in dental hygiene, you need a baccalaureate. At Wichita State University (where she finished her baccalaureate), I could transfer a lot of credits, which meant that I had to take lessons to get my diploma. I took a called emerging emerging technology, and it really turned on my fire for technology and education. I just started to google and look for my best fit, and that's a bit there that I found a MNU, and it's perfect because, you know, I was born in Nebraska and high.
• Leah stadium, OTD, assistant professor, academic coordinator in the field, occupational therapy, college of health of the Allied health professions of the UNMC: I did a lot of education in a clinical environment. You know, having students at work in the field, patient education, tons of this kind of thing. But with regard to class education, and in particular distance education, I just didn't have the impression of having a great range. And especially when these were things like simulation and some of them, I would say, new technologies. I had the impression that this program offered the opportunity to expand my knowledge in these areas and perhaps helping me have a less important syndrome of being a class in class compared to the clinical environment.

How was it to finish an online program for an already busy schedule?

• Dr Fincret: I took one or two lessons per semester for a few years. It was effective and efficient for me because everything I learned and working in the courses I posed in my professional life.
• Crookshank: I made more than one accelerated approach. I am also the mother of a 3 year old child, so this is my second degree in, what, three and a half years? I juggled a lot of full -time things. Mom. Marry. Student. Employee. Yeah. Which is funny, I don't know if many people have this experience with a second or higher education diploma, but I had the most pleasure of all time. Everything I learned at UNMC, I put into practice in my work, and all the projects that we helped me to improve the things I already worked on. It was therefore not a chore.
• Dr Stade: If that was not for some of the peers who followed the program at the same time as me, I am not sure that I would have continued to do it because we all worked full time and did very difficult things, and some of us, we are occupied mothers who were also juggling with stuff at home. And so it was really fun to have peers throughout the country to learn and learn with it. And then being able to do the work when it worked for me was nice. My children often joked by saying that my car became my office, and I did a lot of homework during football training or in the parking lot between when I got out of work and when the group's concert started, or that kind of thing. And so, it was pleasant to have this capacity, to be able to do the work where it fits into my already busy schedule.

How did it help you do your job better?

• Dr Stade: I think it helped me do my job in many ways. First, it helped me dream of great and to be more creative with the way I do things. I would say that I used it a lot in the mentoring aspect, whether with our practitioners, educators students or with our doctoral students that we mentor. You know they plan their own learning experience. And, being able to work on the planning processes of a learning experience is very parallel to what we do as an instructor when we plan a course and it really helped me to become a better mentor for our OT students. Being able to critically assess my own teaching and to be able to ask me these questions “why” is always invigorating as an instructor.
• Crookshank: As this is a new program, it is a brand new dental hygiene program, we build it from zero, which is unique in itself. Few people can say they do this. But we are new; We cannot just start with the old technology and the old manners. This is our opportunity to intensify it and show why we are such a new and innovative program. You know, dream big. But here I do it.
• Dr Fincret: So many things I worked on and ended up being my portfolio for my master's program are things I have since done and taught and I have received incredibly positive comments from learners. In March 2020, you may remember, we had to withdraw most of our clinical environmental learners because of COVID. And so, in the two weeks, we had to go from what was supposed to be a live course based on experiential simulation to a distance teaching course completely online, and if I had not had the knowledge, skills and contacts that I had established via the HPTT program, it would have been impossible.