Advancing Clinical Instructor Best Practices: A Venture into Online Learning

The study’s purpose was to uncover how Clinical Instructor (CI) best practices can be learned and maintained over time through use of an online learning environment. The study's three research questions centered on CIs' perceptions of the effectiveness of an online learning module, DPT students' perceptions of CI mentoring skills in providing an enriched learning environment, and the level that CIs would be able to maintain module-taught best practices after a nine-week inactive period. The study’s background begins with Vision 2020 where the American Physical Therapy Association foresaw the need to require a clinical doctorate as the entry-level degree for physical therapists (PT). As a result, the academic rigor of PT programs was elevated and length of clinical experiences was increased. This resulted in a strong reliance on the Internet as a way to send larger amounts of information to CIs on a timelier basis. These events led to the identification of a gap between CI needs and evidence-based, CI best practices. Studies found that there were few online education courses with a clinical education focus. Additional factors that contribute to the ever-widening gap include inconsistent CI knowledge of how to work with students’ professional behavior issues, student supervision, and lack of evidence-based, CI best practices. The participants of this study consisted of two groups, DPT students and CIs who served as mentors for the students’ third clinical rotation. CIs completed an online module prior to the start of a nine-week rotation. Immediately following the rotation, the CIs took a delayed post-test and participated in a focus group. DPT students completed a feedback form to assess the CIs’ performance. Following a nine-week inactive period, the CIs completed a follow up worksheet that assessed their ability to maintain module-taught best practices. This mixed methods study utilized SPSS to analyze the quantitative data including the use of Wilcoxin Signed Ranks and Mann Whitney U tests. Grounded Theory was used to analyze the qualitative aspects of the study. Cronbach's alpha tested for internal consistency and found the reliability of the instruments to be at the acceptable to good level. The Kappa statistical analyses found the data to be at "substantial" to "almost perfect" levels. The findings indicated that by taking the online module CIs perceived an improvement in the quality of their mentoring skills in the clinic. According to the students, treatment group-CIs did not provide better mentoring during the clinical rotation compared to the control group-CIs. However, the students that had the treatment group-CIs did report the use of module-taught best practices. Lastly, treatment group-CIs did maintain best practices with use of the module-taught best practices as a key resource after a nine-week inactive period. In summary, study results indicated that the participating CIs were able to maintain best practices using immediacy in education, distributed clinical practice, and reflection. Due to the sample size, generalization of the study results to the CI population is not supported. More research in this area is needed to help close this gap in clinical education.

Name thesis:degree_name

EdD

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Cincinnati

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Engelhard, Chalee R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Seo, Kay

• Educational Software
• clinical education
• online learning
• web-based instruction
• constructivism
• problem-based learning
• physical therapy

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1352484966

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:ucin1352484966