Affiliations: Department of Occupational Therapy, University of
Haifa, Haifa, Israel | School of Occupational Therapy, Hadassah-Hebrew
University, Israel
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Professor Tamar Weiss, Department of
Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Social Welfare & Health Studies,
University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, 31905 Israel. Tel.: +972 4 828 8390;
Fax: +972 4 824 9753; E-mail: tamar@research.haifa.ac.il
Abstract: For the past two years, the Department of Occupational Therapy at
the University of Haifa has offered an online course to third year occupational
therapists on the topic of Ergonomics for Health Care Professionals. The
development and implementation of this course was funded by the Israeli
Ministry of Education. Unique teaching materials, developed and uploaded to the
University's server via "High Learn", included interactive and self-directed
documents containing graphics, animations, and video clips. Extensive use was
made of the discussion forum and survey tools, and students submitted all
assignments online. For the final topic, an expert in ergonomics from Boston
University delivered a lecture via two-way videoconferencing. The course site
included comprehensive library listings in which all bibliographic materials
were made available online. Students accessed course materials at the
University in a computer classroom and at home via modem. In an accompanying
research study, the frequency of student usage of the various online tools was
tracked and extensive data were collected via questionnaires documenting
students' demographic background, preferred learning style, prior usage of
technology, satisfaction with the course and academic achievement. This paper
focuses on the results of the research study that examined how the students
responded to and coped with teaching material presented and accessed in this
format.
