Using real-time technology to enhance online health education instruction in an MPH distance learning program

The transition of campus based health education curriculum to a distance learning mode can be challenging. This is particularly true of courses in which group activities and student interaction are extensively used in the campus based classroom setting. This presentation will describe how the San Jose State University Master of Public Health Distance Education Program utilizes the Elluminate learning platform to provide live online instruction to its distance students. Selected and edited short recordings of live sessions will be shown to illustrate how interactive activities can be conducted online. Among the activities that will be demonstrated include, 1) virtual breakout sessions of teams developing PowerPoint presentations of training plans and then returning to the Elluminate ‘classroom' to present their plan to the rest of the class, 2) the enhancement of shared learning through small group meetings with an instructor to review and comment on the goals and objectives of students' individual program plans, and 3) promoting interaction in a community organizing course through online guest speakers.