Using Kritik to Teach Healthcare more Effectively (in Canvas)
Dr. Prerna Poojary is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. Her qualifications range from her doctorate in Rehabilitation and Technology to certifications in Oncology, Wound Care, and Gerontology. She teaches clinical courses in Pathophysiology for Rehabilitation as well as Critical Issues in Public Health.
Dr. Poojary is well-rounded in her skillset as a clinical professor, and she knows the importance of the efficiency of technology in the medical world. By using technology to aid her decision making, she uses Kritik to ensure her students are able to develop their feedback skills before they get yelled at by their clinical instructors.
Why is peer-to-peer learning so important for healthcare education?
I have introduced Kritik to my doctorate teaching peers as an objective, structured yet flexible peer-to-peer evaluation platform. I know undergraduate and graduate education in healthcare has been struggling to expose students to feedback response for years now. I know from training doctorate students and sending them to clinical courses, they come back crying because their Clinical Instructor is giving them feedback that they misinterpret as hurtful. Helping them understand that feedback is objective and it is there to help you is why Kritik is so important for introducing them to that skillset.
Dr. Poojary has taught several sections of students in different levels of healthcare education. She has highlighted a significant issue with students transitioning to the "real-world"; students cannot differentiate the difference between constructive feedback and hurt feelings. Older generations attribute this "weakness" of a student on modern times, but how can you expect a student to be proficient at a skill when they have never been exposed to it? Traditional university courses do not focus on the necessity of interacting with your colleagues in an intellectual format.
As an early adopter of Kritik, how has our team helped you use our platform?
I have been very impressed with how Kritik responds to feedback from its professors using its product. It is very clear that you want to get better at helping professors and students alike. I also have Mohsen's (Kritik's CEO) phone number and he is always so quick to respond, and meeting deadlines for any support that I need. It is very refreshing to see how Kritik takes control of the communication with students who are experiencing difficulties, as my students go directly to Kritik's support.
It takes a brave professor to try new, untested software in the classroom. Students are focused on their grade output, and professors are focused on their student evaluations. This relationship unfortunately does not encourage innovation of a classroom with regards to class delivery, material, etc. Why would you change it up if your students are "happy", and your evaluations are strong? That mindset is redundant to the principles of education and lifelong learning. Our team at Kritik wants professors to help their students get the most out of their courses with respect to their futures, and if trying something new leads to higher student satisfaction, why wouldn't you try it?
Why did you choose to use Kritik again in your clinical prep courses?
I am a big believer in peer evaluation as a concept, it is an effective way for people to learn. Using Kritik in my Critical Issues in Public Health course, I did not use Kritik to it's full potential; I only had my students complete a few activities to try it out. I collected some feedback from the students at the end of the semester, and they expressed how much value they saw in the platform, especially for how it relates to their preparation for clinical courses.
We are all skeptical of something that is introduced to us, as opposed to us discovering something on our own. We question its validity, how it helps, mostly due to avoid the premise of being sold something that is not important. Dr. Poojary saw the value in peer evaluation before Kritik was introduced to her, which led her to make the decision to try it out. However, she admits that she did not use it to its full capacity, which can skew the reaction and results of your experiment with new technology. While it was a nice surprise that her students understood the value of peer feedback in Kritik, we need to give our full effort to reap the benefits of what we bought into.
Why is it so important to have Kritik integrated within Canvas?
My students are always on their phones and are adept at using technology, but not when it comes to checking their university emails. If I had my students' phone numbers, I would create a mass group text to remind them of their assignments! I worked with Kritik to ensure that parts of my Canvas shell link directly to Kritik's website.
It is quite ironic when a student complains of missing an assignment deadline, despite many reminders, especially when they have all of their devices on them at any given moment. Ideally, it would be great if assignment reminders were delivered through mediums like Snapchat or Instagram, because students monitor those notifications religiously. Canvas is the hub for everything for a student, and Kritik links should be integrated within it to guide students to Kritik's website.
As an instructor at different levels of healthcare education, Dr. Poojary understands how students learn best. Preparing healthcare students for their future roles is an integral responsibility of a university. Dr. Poojary is Kritik's biggest advocate, as she knows firsthand what it takes to be a successful clinician and instructor.
