The Community Oral Health (COH) Program introduces students to the underlying foundations for selecting methods and strategies for implementing health education programs; methods selectedby health clinicians should be grounded in behavior change theory. The health...
Should We Focus on Vulnerable Populations or Everyone?
Vulnerable populations are those at higher than average risk of disease and bad disease outcomes directly or through the healthcare system. (Riegelman, 2019). In the Community Oral Health COH Program, consideration for the needs of vulnerable populations is a focus of...
21st Century Public Health: Learn From the Past and Build the Future
During the past two decades, the public health community's attention has been drawn increasingly to the social determinants of health (SDH). A search on Google results in millions of hits, which indicates that people are talking about this term. So, what does Social...
COVID-19’s Impact on Homeless Populations in Los Angeles
As COVID-19 continues to threaten communities across the world, the homeless population is facing a "crisis in a crisis." Below is a presentation I've put together on the state of homelessness in Los Angeles, the impact COVID-19 has had on this population, and...
Dental Hygiene Tips During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Keeping good oral health during the pandemic is not only important, but a critical message that must be adopted in every community. Read on to discover dental hygiene tips to stay healthy during the pandemic, and for caring for a COVID-19 positive patient....
How to Plan and Implement a Community Health Program
This is an adapted presentation by Professor Linda Brookman, RDHAP, BSDH, MS for the Community Health Program Planning and Implementation course as part of USC Ostrow’s Community Oral Health program. What is the public health pyramid? The public health pyramid is a...
Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health
This is an adapted presentation by Professor Linda Brookman, RDHAP, BSDH, MS for the Community Health Program Planning and Implementation course as part of USC Ostrow's Community Oral Health program. What is health equity? According to the World Health...
Distance Education vs. Correspondence Courses
Not all online programs are the same. Let’s look at the definition of a correspondence course versus an eLearning experience. Why is the distinction important? While there has been no payment made by St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, the U.S. Department of...
Create an Asynchronous eLearning Experience in 4 Easy Steps
Before we cover the four steps for creating an asynchronous eLearning experience, here are three studies that demonstrate the benefits of using interactive video content in eLearning courses. The Effectiveness of Embedded Content as form of Active Learning The...
How to Motivate Students: EPAs, Badges, and Experience Points
The final installment in the F.I.S.G.R. acronym for effectively teaching online is “R,” which stands for rewards. In general, the principle is that rewards do in fact motivate students. Before explaining badges and experience points, it is important to explain...
How to Use Guided Discovery Questions to Deepen Learning
Guided discovery means that the instructor creates questions and suggests resources for students to research and on which to report. These questions are typically given to students at the end of a lecture or following a patient case problem. The article, Student...
3 Best Practices for Creating an Interactive Course Manual
There are several pieces of circumstantial evidence that exist to support the idea that students don't read textbooks anymore. For example, Pearson, the largest publisher of educational textbooks has said they are phasing out print books and making all learning...
How to Increase Student Performance with Active Learning
In this installment of our series on effective online teaching, we will cover the basics of creating a recorded interactive lecture and an interactive course manual. In subsequent articles, we will explore the technology needed to do this. Our goal is to go well...
How to Teach Online Courses Effectively
I recommend five things that you should consider using if you want to teach interactively: focused lectures, interactive teaching, supplementation, guided and structured discovery, and rewards (F.I.S.G.R.) 1. Focused, Short, Up-to-Date Lectures The first letter is “F”...