ISRRT_COVID-19_book

supported to ensure functionality was maintained. Secondly, the online procedures and
protocols that supported the same pedagogical principles had to be available. Keeping this in
mind, faculty strived to align to the principles of good teaching-learning methods matching
up to curriculum and objectives, promoting teacher-student interactions, encouraging critical
thinking and communication skills, fostering teamwork, and providing online formative and
summative assessments.
Best practice was aided via videoconferencing platforms to provide student-to-student
interactions with the availability of breakout rooms and the close interactions of faculty
guiding the students. Social constructivists’ approach to learning was aided by supporting
student engagement with others (online community) and the learner being actively involved
in their experiences. The sense of community, understanding of the expectations and
interactions with faculty during the learning activities fostered critical thinking which was
more explicit in the online verses the face-to-face format.
Patient Communication
In the patient care stream specifically, the use of standardized patients (SPs) helped us to
prepare each student for real life interactions with cancer patients in weekly sessions. The
SPs provided feedback to the student on the relationship and communication style, while the
faculty member’s feedback was specific to content following the interaction. Postinteractions,
debrief of the patient care scenarios was conducted with all the students in a
large group. Based on student feedback, the debrief was a crucial step in students’ learning.
The assessments consisted of formative and summative evaluation. Faculty recorded each
student’s interaction with the SP and shared it with the student to encourage reflection.
Faculty advisors were assigned to each student to meet with and devise a learning agreement.
Using the SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) model, students
could celebrate their successes and determine a plan to help bridge gaps in areas of
improvement. It promoted accountability and an understanding that learning in a
professional setting is a continuum and not done in silos. This process prompted students to
learn at the level of synthesis in Bloom’s Taxonomy.
When converting to an online medium, we wanted to ensure that delivery reflected our
historical delivery goals. We therefore developed the Patient Care stream of the online course
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