“I would highly recommend that Medical Terminology students use the Medical Language Lab in addition to the textbook. When I used to teach in person I would incorporate many active learning activities into my lectures. Now that I teach completely online, the interactive assignments help to replace those active learning activities.”
Katie Rushing-Anderson, MS, Professor Black Hawk College, Illinois
Katie Rushing-Anderson is starting her 15th year teaching at Black Hawk College. She is currently teaching the medical terminology course as a pre-requisite for students moving into a variety of health careers programs such as Physical Therapy Assistant, Veterinary Technician, and Nursing. Katie has been teaching medical terminology for over 12 years in both classroom-based and online formats. Her current course is entirely online. The challenge: Moving from a classroom-based to an online course Katie has been requiring Medical Terminology Simplified by Barbara A. Gylys and Regina M. Masters for her students as long as she has been teaching medical terminology. “This book is highly effective in guiding students through the material.” When she was teaching the course face-to-face, she created worksheets and practiced with her students in class. But when she started teaching the course online, it was more challenging to practice active learning. The solution: Medical Language Lab “As soon as I started teaching online, I required Medical Language Lab for my students.” She has found that it not only benefits her students, but also saves her time. “I value the mini lectures that go along with each chapter. I used to have to create these myself, but now they are available in the online modules. And the students find them very helpful.” Katie appreciates the vast number of activities in MLL but acknowledges that students may not be able to do all of them. “I do an introductory video for students where I explain the course, demonstrate how to use the workbook, and point out the features of MLL that I think will be most beneficial for them.” Katie encourages students to start with the workbook and read the assigned material. She then has them go into the MLL for hands-on activities that are submitted and make up about 25% of the students’ grade. Katie has set up the program so that students can practice as much as they want before they submit for a grade. “I like that MLL allows instructors to choose how they want to set it up. I think repetition is helpful and this allows my students to learn from their mistakes.” Some of the exercises that Katie likes the most are listening and spelling, flashcards, and word building. Students complete these activities to prepare for their weekly quiz. Quizzes focus on listening, spelling, defining medical terms and using abbreviations, which support the course learning objectives. The result: Students are prepared for their exams “Between practicing with MLL and the weekly quizzes, students should be ready for their exams.” She gives an exam every 2-3 chapters and those count for the majority of their grade. Katie notices a correlation between students who are spending time with MLL and exam scores. “The students who take the time to practice and have scored well on their MLL exercises tend to do better on the exams.”
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