Faculty From China Learn About Online Education at CAHS

Educating educators was the purpose of a recent visit by several faculty members from Shandong University in China to the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Allied Health Sciences (CAHS). Six medical faculty from Shandong University spent two weeks in late November and early December getting a better understanding of administering online education. 

The visit by the Shandong University faculty was the result of a relationship established by CAHS dean Tina Whalen, EdD during a trip to China in March 2016. Whalen visited several universities, including Shandong, a comprehensive public research university enrolling nearly 60,000 students.

"We did an exploratory visit to look for opportunities for faculty research partnerships, and faculty-led student exchange programs, possible training or joint programming,” Whalen says.

While visiting with faculty and staff at Shandong University, Whalen learned of a desire to put their courses online. That conversation eventually led to six Shandong faculty visiting CAHS.

"Their primary goal was to understand how to teach online, how to host material online and how to engage students in the online environment,” says Dawn Clineman, associate director of online learning in CAHS. "The faculty appeared to enjoy themselves and they said they learned a lot.”

"The two instructors are very helpful and very kind,” says Shandong University faculty Shashua Ge. "We had many brainstorming sessions and they helped us solve many problems so hopefully we can construct our own online course when we get back to China. It’s very helpful.”

During their visit, the Shandong faculty attended sessions on a wide range of topics including online lecturing, practice narrating, lecture capture and strategies for attracting online students.

Not all the learning by the faculty happened within CAHS. The group toured the colleges of nursing, pharmacy and medicine, as well as the anatomy lab in the College of Medicine. They also attended the Feast of Carols in Corbett Auditorium at the College-Conservatory of Music and saw the UC men’s basketball team play at Fifth Third Arena.

"Part of our agreement is to provide a couple of months of follow up, so hopefully we will maintain contact,” says Carolyn Stoll, an instructional designer in the Center for Educational Technology and Instructional Support in CAHS. "We really want to do that.”