Course Introduction
PTA 101 Intro to Clinical Practice1
The following information is used for instructional purposes for students enrolled in the Physical Therapist Assistant Program at Lane Community College. It is not intended for commercial use or distribution or commercial purposes. It is not intended to serve as medical advice or treatment.
Contact howardc@lanecc.edu for permissions.
Basic Moodle and Lecture Navigation
Effective Learning Strategies
Exam Study Guides and Resources
Explore methods to effectively navigate, access, read, and learn in an online environment
Take some time to get to know your "classroom". Start by reviewing the resources in Week 0 so you can be familiar with general course structures, resources, and expectations. Apply knowledge and skills from the "How to Moodle" prerequiste to our course, so you can start the term feeling a bit more confident in how to be successful. Be sure you have explored how to access the following:
Interactive lessons are the major "lectures" for the course. Each page of the lecture is titled with subheadings included in the table of contents. If you find a link that is not working or seems incorrect, please let me know so I can address the problem. If you need clarification or reassurance of your understanding, please send your questions and I am happy to help!
Interactive lesson include multimedia resources: video, audio, animation, and handouts/print materials. Handouts, additional resources, and links to supplemental information can be found in the "side bars" on the right hand side of these lecture pages. Be sure you download handouts: this the electronic equivalent of getting a handout "in class".
Here are some example media that you may find in your lectures.
Hyperlinks: All hyperlinks are represented in blue and underlined. These may be websites, audio, video, or documents. Audio files may also be referred to as podcasts. Depending on the size of the file (e.g., how long the instructor talks) and the speed of your Internet connection, these may take a while to download and play
Video may be embedded.....at times these can take a bit to play. Whenever possible, I link or embed instead of placing video or audio files for download.
Videos may be included as a hyperlink, so now try accessing this linked video
Now you can test your understanding by completing one of these self-assessments. The great thing about self-assessment is you get immediate feedback and can practice over and over. Sometimes we will offer a 'hint', which will refer you back to some lecture or reading material. Although self-assessments show "points", these are generally for your reference only
Let's begin!
Each topic in this course is organized to provide an introduction and overview, then links to content and activities to help you learn and apply your knowledge.
About the Syllabus - links to 11 minute video
Course Introduction - links to 7 minute video
Your learning is evaluated based on your abilility to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities at the level described in the course and lesson objectives. How learning is assessed is described in your syllabus. You may notice "study guides" are directly linked to course and lesson objectives. Again, this is our way of guiding you to content and activities that will support your learning.
As many clinics have moved to electronic medical records, the use of abbreviations is becoming less frequent. Clinics are just about as diverse as people, so I have selected what I feel are the more common abbreviations that you may encounter when reviewing free text from a provider in the medical record or in any handwritten notes. I suspect that within the next 10 years, there will be little to no use of abbreviations due to improvements in technology and a constant eye on ways to reduce medical errors.