Lisa Dorsey (Saint Louis University); Ginge Kettenbach (Saint Louis University), Carol Beckel (Saint Louis University), Tricia M. Austin (Saint Louis University)
Issue: The COVID-19 pandemic ignited rapid change in higher education (ed) delivery. Physical Therapy (PT) ed faced the challenges of pivoting to remote pedagogy for didactic coursework and interruption of clinical ed. Immediate items to address during change included maintaining shared governance, Program strategic plan alignment and trust of university leadership for flexible curricular delivery. Method: Implementing HyFlex curricular models for professional courses including didactic and clinical experiences for over 240 PT students in three cohorts. Unique scheduling of courses allowed for complementary timing between didactic and clinical courses. Outcomes: Continued cohort progression toward on-time graduation occurred, in part, due to strong clinical partnerships, university-level collaboration,and collective faculty and staff willingness to quickly pivot and consider all options in our professional curriculum. Conclusion: The silver lining to crisis management was the opportunity for innovative faculty thought around curricular delivery, creating a technologically sophisticated educational model that may continue to prevail in the coming years, complementing traditional psychomotor skill development and delivery.
Download PowerPoint slides here and view the recording below.
