Teacher Training for Healthcare Professionals

Program Description

The healthcare profession is first and foremost a medically based clinical modality. As such, healthcare practitioners are not typically professionally trained as instructors or educators. Massage therapists "learn to teach; on the job so to speak, and similarly to other complimentary health professionals, without benefit of professional instructional training.

The West Coast College of Massage Therapy’s Online Instructor Development Program for Healthcare Professionals is designed to assist massage therapists and other Healthcare Professionals in the fields of Complementary and Alternative medicine to learn and develop the knowledge, skills and attributes necessary to become effective instructors and educators. The program focusses on helping students learn concepts of instructional design and adult learning theory, lesson planning, creating assessment tools, understanding and using learning styles, creating classroom materials, developing classroom management skills, enhancing learner motivation, utilizing emotional intelligence, applying ethics and professionalism, integrating research skills, understanding accreditation, applying these concepts, and applying skills and knowledge learned through a teaching practicum.

Career Opportunities

The best Massage and Complementary and Alternative Healthcare training institutions have a staff of instructors who are knowledgeable about the field and passionate about what they do.  Therefore, participants could realistically expect to be qualified as an instructor in their field of practice upon the completion of the program.

The West Coast College of Massage Therapy’s, Instructor Development Program was designed to assist healthcare professionals learn and develop the knowledge, skills and attributes necessary to become effective instructors and educators in private institutions.

Our program focuses on assisting participants in developing the practical skills and abilities that are necessary to fulfill the role and responsibilities of being a healthcare instructor.

Participants are awarded the WCCMT Online Instructor Development Diploma upon successful completion of both the course work and teaching practicum.

Program Duration

The program is 92 hours in length, consisting of 60 hours of coursework completed online at a self-paced schedule, plus a 32 hour teaching practicum.

• 60 hours of coursework
• 32 hours of practicum work
• Self-paced program, but must be completed within 1 year from the start date
• Minimum grade of 70% on all assignments and successful completion of the practicum.
• Depending on the time scheduling of the course and day(s) offered for the Practicum, the average time commitment to complete the in-class teaching portion of the practicum is based on 1 lesson per week (4 weeks in total).

The program content is delivered primarily by distance education.  Only a few assignments require a visit on campus (6 hours in total), and the practicum component is completed both through distance education, and 9 hours of in-class (on campus) teaching.  On site learning assignments for Ontario massage and spa students will take place at our sister campus at CCMH in Toronto, Ontario.

Each course includes automated delivery of lecture, quizzes and assignments and is designed to take into consideration those who do not have advanced computer skills.  Assignments are broken down into steps, with clear information regarding marking and submission.

Instructor(s)/Grader(s)

Instructors qualifications: Instructor Diploma or a Bachelor’s Degree in adult education, minimum of 1 year in-class teaching, and/or online teaching experience.  As the program specifically focuses on healthcare topics, beneficial credentials will be for a certified healthcare professional (RMT preference).

Grading is automated for quizzes with correct and incorrect answers feedback, well Instructor based grading and feedback is used for written assignments. Each assignment submitted for instructor grading will require one to two weeks processing feedback posting grades to the participant profile, and four weeks for practicum related assignments. All grades must meet or exceed 70% in order to receive a completion certificate for the course.

Questions and enquires can be submitted online, instructor will provided email feedback within 24-48 hours during business days, Monday-Friday.

Course enrollment

Access to courses requires the following steps:

1. Create an online Profile Account: New participants must create an online account with our site. Creating a new account includes setting up a secure username and password, providing contact information, agreeing to the admission requirements and academic honest policy.
   Once an online account is created participants use their user ID and password to login and complete the steps below.
2. Verify Admission Requirements: Part of the Admission requirement includes verifying participants have the proper credentials to take the courses. The "Enrollment Credentials" area is where participants upload their credentials for verification.
   
3. Pay and Enroll to courses: There are two course enrollment methods; PayPal enrollment and Enrollment key. Participant choose an enrollment method Moodle will process the enrollment and verify that the participants Profile Account and Enrollment Credentials have been completed, then grant access to the  course content.

Assessments & Academic Honesty

As with regular on-site institutions, participants may refer to their course notes and lectures to complete their assignments.  While there are quizzes throughout the program, the program itself is focused on being project/task based, rather than test-based.  In this way, participants can demonstrate their knowledge and skills and the issue of academic dishonesty lessens.  There is very little time pressure to push a participant towards academic dishonesty, as there are no specific deadlines for assignments and quizzes other than completing a course within a year of registration. 

The following measures have been taken to ensure that academic honesty is in place for assignments and assessments:

• Participants must be logged in with their unique password and ID in order to complete a course.
• Participants have been provided with an academic honesty clause at registration that they have agreed to.
• Expectations of coursework are upfront. 
• There is adequate time to meet deadlines so that they are not driven to cheat.
• Assignments are broken down very specifically into steps and stages, with clear information regarding marking, grading and submission.
• There are multiple assessments in each course so it is harder for participants to arrange for constant help.
• Assessments are weighted so that not one area is significantly greater than the other, so participants do not feel pressured if they do not excel in one area.
• Within each course assessments are scaffolded as much as possible.
• It is assumed that quizzes are open-book.
• Quizzes are set so that the questions and/or answer choices are randomized each time.
• Feedback is provided on quizzes so that learners can improve if they do not pass the first time.
• Participants are able to re-take quizzes, so they do not need to rely on academic dishonesty and can learn from their mistakes.
• Reflective questions and personal experience are required for many of the assignments, which make it difficult for someone else to answer.

• Windows 98, ME, NT, 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7
• Internet access (cable, DSL, wireless, broadband, etc.)
• Internet browser (Firefox is recommended, but Internet Explorer also works)
• Microsoft Word software for assignments
• Adobe Reader (free)

Practicum

• Basic video recording device to record two 1.5 hour sessions of practicum teaching
• Approximately 32GM memory card or flash drive for recorded practicum submission
  (mailed to the Coordinator for marking and retained by the Coordinator for records)