A Guide to Innovation in Physician Associate/Assistant Education: Using Instructional Technology for Improved Engagement.

Abstract

For physician associate/assistant (PA) educators, the path of least resistance often is to focus our cognitive energies on topics with which we are most comfortable and to deliver content in the style in which we are most accustomed. The consequence of this approach is that many didactic curricula are delivered in a traditional, lecture-based format, which then aligns with how the faculty were taught. Studies show that lecture-based teaching may not be the most effective and that blending teaching modalities can improve knowledge acquisition. In addition, scheduling several classroom lectures week to week can be challenging, especially in a program that uses numerous guest lecturers to deliver the curriculum. One solution to this problem may be through innovative, engaging resources that enable faculty to deliver content asynchronously. Developing and implementing such tools can be challenging to PA faculty because they are often not formally trained in education nor are they up to date on the most current innovations in educational technology. Furthermore, change can be difficult, and it could seem an insurmountable feat to step outside the comfort zone of a traditional lecture. This work describes a collaboration between PA faculty and a University Instructional Support Specialist where the Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate ADDIE model, a widely used system for developing training tools, was used to create an asynchronous lecture for students in the form of an interactive series of modules to replace a traditional classroom lecture.