Coherence Analysis

Coherence Analysis can be read here.

Lets be frank, it can be told with a certain level of confidence that a teacher’s life professional or otherwise can be considered cluttered; at least in the lessons that they teach. It is with every attempt to make life easier by making lessons, presentations, etc. simple to follow, but somewhere in the translation from the frontal lobes of the teacher to the eyes and ears of the learner something go awry, losing the learner to material that is not supportive of the instructional goal is the Coherence Principle. This principle states simply to create a learning environment (materials, presentations, lectures) that is straightforward and is not flowered by extraneous words, graphics and sounds that would take away from the learners’ chances cognitively learning.

So true, it is hard to imagine any educator that has not been swayed by the placing of seductive details within a presentation so as to give the lesson some much needed pizazz, yet unknowingly adding to the confusion of the learner and causing cognitive overload. Weeding, referenced by Mayer and Moreno (2003), gives insight into removing sounds, graphics or words that cannot enhance the instructional goal although there is claim that properly placing any one of these three within a presentation can “promote deeper processing” (Clark and Mayer 2011) yet, there is still no evidence proving the effectiveness of that input.

Instructing future healthcare professionals can be challenging, especially if the learners have had no experience within this field, as an instructor my role must be carefully planned. Making a priority of engaging the learners’ interest is important but how many times have I jeopardized that learner by attempting to “jazz-up” my lectures/presentations only to cause some sort of cognitive overload? Outlines and lesson plans still reign in preparation for a class but factors of the Coherence Principle should not go overlooked.

 

Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R.E. (2011). e-Learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3^rd ed). San Francisco: Wiley & Sons, Inc

Introduction to Respiratory Therapy: Episode One

Podcast: Introduction to Respiratory Therapy

Once again, for this section, my project has my ship sailing into uncharted waters; creating a Podcast.  The notion of creating a Podcast for my class never entered my mind but as I prepared for this task I began to see limitless possibilities.  

Wanting to stay within my own theme in which I teach, I decided to create a program that respiratory therapy students would be able to utilize as a resource of knowledge.  I envision this being a place where students can read about anything that they are instructed in the classroom but also what they are seeing within the clinical setting.  I did do some research on multiple levels and thus far I have not seen any “respiratory therapy” Podcast programs that would follow this format.  The “working” title of this program is RT Corner, which if my wife or anyone else has a better name to offer, I am completely open for suggestions, but until then RT Corner will feature topics that are included within the 15 weeks that the students and I are together within the respiratory therapy program.  I mention within my first episode that students, especially when confronted with something out of their comfort zone, sometimes have trouble adjusting to the pace and to the change of concepts and theories.  This program has the potential of being an incredible study-buddy for those that need that little extra that can make a huge difference in their overall performance.  

Being that I do have a wide choice of topics to choose from I thought I would simplify matters and keep orderly by starting as if I was ready to begin a new cohort by providing them with an introduction of the class. The title Introduction to Respiratory Therapy Episode One will give the learner/listener a little peek behind the curtain that just might take the nervous edge off when coming to class for the first day and the small assignment that they were given during the introduction will also give the learners the feeling that they already belong to the class.

The Podcast, for my situation, can’t provide everything, but it does give way for some creative ways of reaching the learners which gives a lot of power to them in deciding how they would utilize these resources.  

For accessibility purposes HERE you find the narrative form of the Podcast.