Terry Thurrott

Excellence in Online Teaching
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 05/21/2020

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

The health care field is growing rapidly, as are the requirements for preparing individuals to enter and be successful in their chosen health care fields. To remain current with the demands of career preparation areas, colleges and universities need to have a plan of action to assess the status of programs and strategies for improving instructional offerings. This course will provide participants with a step-by-step process to complete an internal program quality assessment tool called the Program Effectiveness Plan (PEP). Resources are provided that will expand the knowledge base of participants and assist them in completing a PEP.
This course is sponsored by
Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools
This course focuses on the ACCSC Standards of Accreditation which directly tie to the academic areas and program requirements for an accredited school. The course includes information on program development and design, educational policies and procedures, faculty, student services, and educational delivery methods.

This course is sponsored by ACCSC


This course is designed to give you a clear and practical understanding of the federal and state regulatory standards that govern the conduct of your organization and correspondingly underlay the performance of your job. The purpose of the course is not to train you to be a regulatory expert, but to provide the information you need to do or say the right thing when interacting with prospective students and students, as well as the consequences of doing or saying the wrong thing whether by mistake or with intent.
This is a private course intended for associates employed by this Institute.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a federal law in the United States designed to provide students with access to, and the privacy of, their educational records. The law applies to students in higher education and educational institutions that receive funding under a program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. This course is designed to provide participants with a working knowledge of FERPA guidelines to ensure proper handling of educational records and other institutional requirements.
This course provides faculty, staff, and administrators with an understanding of the legal mandates regarding equal access for students with disability. More importantly, it provides a practical framework to help institutional personnel know what to say and do in the context of their defined role and interactions with students with disabilities. Topics include the civil rights nature of applicable Federal law, definitional issues, the impact of disability on traditional education activities and pursuits, reasonable accommodations, and the unique responsibilities of faculty, staff, and administrators as prescribed by their position.
This introductory course covers the essential roles of a teacher and the competencies required to be a successful instructor in an educational institution. Proven techniques and strategies for planning and preparation are presented and discussed. In addition, the course offers effective methods for conducting the first class meeting and delivering course content. This course provides a solid foundation for new instructors and serves as an excellent refresher for more experienced instructors.
Educators work with students who want to learn specific skills that will lead to fulfilling careers. As educational instructors it is our job to help each student to achieve this goal. Just as you may have a particular style of teaching that you prefer, your students have preferred ways of learning. This course will help you to identify the different learning styles of your students so that you can adjust your instruction to better accommodate them. Good teachers also regularly monitor the effectiveness of their instruction by assessing their students’ learning. This course will examine several aspects of assessment including how to create good tests, how to ask effective questions and how to get your students to actively participate in their learning by asking questions themselves.
This course provides methods and techniques for managing students and class activities. We start by reviewing the steps instructors need to follow as they introduce a class to new students. We then discuss strategies to effectively deal with unfocused and challenging students. The course ends by describing common mistakes made by instructors and ways to avoid them.
This course provides methodologies and examples to help instructors increase content retention and application by students in need of support. The course starts by covering the skills needed by instructors to be clear communicators. We then discuss ways instructors can become effective in monitoring students and using student groups as learning tools. The course concludes by covering techniques and strategies to instruct diverse learners, including learners with disabilities.
This course compares and contrasts four styles of classroom management. The course includes "virtual visits" to animated classrooms where participants observe four instructors who exhibit different management styles. The style that is preferred by most students is identified and described, and suggestions are offered on how instructors can modify their personal style to increase their effectiveness. A four-step model for developing successful classroom management strategies is presented and is followed by a discussion of a practical, behavioral approach to classroom management. Characteristics that foster good discipline in the educational institution and in the classroom are listed and explained, and tips are offered that can improve both institution-wide and classroom discipline. Finally, a number of scenarios involving common discipline problems are described.
The purpose of this course is to familiarize instructors with the concepts of soft skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) so they can use this information to improve their professional performance. The course provides a comparison of hard and soft skills, including people skills and workplace behaviors. Ten "most important" soft skills are discussed in detail and the relationship between EQ and soft skills is explained. The course concludes with tips and suggestions to help instructors enhance their soft skills and EQ.
Awareness has grown in recent years that, to be effective today, learning must include more than knowledge and "hard skills," or technical ability. In a world where work is often team-based and project-driven, teaching needs also to encompass attitudes and social competencies. This course will describe ways students can enhance their professional skills across the curriculum. Strategies for teaching effective personal interaction and ways to support student professional growth and development will be discussed. This course will also explain how students can improve their writing skills and computer literacy across the curriculum.
This introductory course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to create successful online courses, whether for faculty-supported distance education delivery or as a supplement to classroom instruction. You will learn to design and develop online courses that have structural integrity and navigational simplicity with a focus on student-centered learning and intellectual interaction. The course covers various learning activities that are supported in an e-learning environment and describes the typical components of an online course. We will provide you with the media strategies and course design methodologies that will allow you to develop online courses in an effective and efficient manner.
Your degree of success as an online instructor relies heavily on several factors, among which are your level of preparedness before the date on which the course is launched; your ability to make a smooth transition into the roles and responsibilities associated with teaching in an online environment; and the effectiveness and efficiency with which you manage learners, instructional transactions embedded in the course as well as the learning environment. In this course, you will learn how to project your authority and presence into the e-learning environment, build a relationship with each learner, promote and nurture learner participation, provide informative and constructive feedback in a timely manner, minimize attrition, manage communications, manage unacceptable behavior and resolve disagreements.
This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to author, teach, assess, and revise successful online courses. You will learn to develop a course framework with consistent modules. Constructing an online community and a dynamic syllabus are important in helping you communicate with students. You will also learn how to develop an assessment plan including self- and peer-assessment as you progress through the course. No online course is complete without a comprehensive revision cycle. This course will walk you through the process of "closing the loop" to create a complete revision and improvement plan for your online course. We will provide you with ideas for student-centered learning, with activities and intellectual interactions using a variety of technology tools.
This course will provide you with basic information to teach in a virtual learning environment and understand the importance of organizing course content. You will learn about the important role technology tools play in teaching and organizing an online course. You will also learn the difference between synchronous and asynchronous learning. As the components of each are discussed, you will further identify appropriate methods, develop guidelines, organize content, and establish a pattern of teaching for each method.
This course will provide you with the knowledge to effectively evaluate student learning in an online environment. Technology tools play a vital role in the evaluation process and several are discussed in this module. Discussion will also be provided to help you further understand how to complete formative and summative assessments, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of objective and subjective assessments. Value-added assessments are also discussed in light of how they can be completed and provide feedback for course revision.
This course will provide you with strategies and techniques to help prepare students for the online environment. To do so, you must also assess your strengths and weaknesses as an online instructor. As you help students assess their readiness for online learning, you are also preparing them for the expectations and realities of the online environment. By identifying students' strengths and weaknesses, you can provide guidance to help them achieve the learning outcomes. This course not only notes the necessary technical skills, it also discusses non-technical skills as well as techniques for successful learning and helping students develop their online persona.
This course will inform you about the purpose of rubrics and will provide you with the techniques to develop rubrics as an assessment tool for student performance, processes and products. This course will explore types of rubrics, the role rubrics play in assessment, as well as the use of rubrics in evaluating elements of your online course to ensure your course is truly student-centered.
This course will provide you with the basic foundations of assistive technology and its use in the online learning environment. As a greater number of students with disabilities are entering online education, this course will prepare online faculty to meet their unique needs. You will learn about the obligations and legal responsibilities under U.S. federal law. In addition you will explore ways of assisting students with disabilities to succeed in the online learning environment. We will help you identify the appropriate tools, introduce you to universal design, and provide strategies that can make your online course accessible to those with disabilities. Online accessibility is beneficial to all of your learners!
This course will provide you with strategies and techniques to help you reduce your workload in the online environment. The course begins with an overview of good principles for education and questions to consider prior to developing Workload Management Strategies (WLMS). This course also provides WLMS for teaching online, communicating and collaborating, and revising your online course.
This course will provide you with a basic overview of the background and history of the popular instructional method called active learning. This method differs from traditional educational methods such as the lecture model. Active learning has a definite place in education especially in the online learning environments. It is used to support teaching outcomes like critical thinking skills, interpersonal skills and knowledge acquisition that all instructors wish for their students. However, active learning it calls for a change of attitude on the part of students and the instructor in order to be successful. But the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages as it can make students enthusiastic about learning. Learn about this brave new world of teaching and learning for the next generation.
This course will provide you with a basic overview of designing and implementing asynchronous, self-directed online courses effectively. It will review the differences between synchronous and asynchronous online courses. Traditional components of face-to-face courses such as readings, written assignments, and discussions work well in the asynchronous online class environment, but what happens to laboratory assignments and applications? Can they fit into the online course model? Courses which need a lab component, especially the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses, may seem impossible to complete in the online environment. Practical examples of effective online lab situations will be provided in this module. This will assist in promoting student engagement and increasing the student’s learning potential.
This course will provide you with an overview of online instructors’ and learners’ personality traits. Participants will be provided with information about the traits themselves, as well as how to identify such traits, utilize them, and develop lessons to reach all students.
Although online learning is becoming more normalized in our educational institutions, there are still many questions about its effectiveness for certain areas of study and training. There remains an idea that online learning is mostly passive and therefore unsuitable for anything active and specifically the development of skills and trades. This course will explore the changing realities of online learning and how effective it can be in the training of skills and trades. Strategies will be shared to facilitate the online teaching of applied skills in simulated and real-world settings.
This course will assist in improving the richness of online learning opportunities by incorporating strategies to avoid the rote memorization and repeating of facts for assessment purposes. Instructors will be able to construct an overarching philosophy to coincide with templated materials. A foundation for success can begin with analyzing the principles of Malcolm Knowles' Theory of Adult Learning and applying those principles to the online classroom. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic, and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your institution. In addition to lecture videos, resource links, and assessments, you will be able to utilize Learning Activities, which will continue to be useful after successful completion of the course.
This course will explore the online learning landscape and how to ensure learner engagement remains high, even when working virtually. The course discusses various aspects of online education, as well as discussing techniques for both social and motivational forms of engagement and how to apply them appropriately in courses. The goal of this course is to help develop a better understanding of the topic and produce tangible resources to help implement plans, strategies, and ideas at your school. In addition to lecture videos, links to possible resources, and assessments, you will be able to utilize the Journal and Learning Activities. Take advantage of a method that best works for you.
Assessments are a vital part of the learning process. They allow students and teachers to see how well they are doing and what needs to be improved upon. When offering online assessments, it is sometimes difficult to develop effective methods due to the new digital learning landscape, experience level with online teaching, or with tweaking on-ground assessments to create an effective online form. In this course, students will identify the impacts and opportunities that online assessments have in the digital learning process, discover the challenges that can present themselves and the strategies to overcome them, and evaluate guidelines for crafting effective assessment opportunities in an online course.
Research shows that supportive working relationships between students and institutional personnel are vital to student retention. For online students, these relationships are especially essential in preventing a sense of isolation and detachment from their academic experience. Because interactions with online students are most likely to occur via phone and email, developing retention-supporting relationships can be challenging. This course teaches online communication strategies that foster connection and engagement with online learners. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of (a) retention and attrition research, (b) online learning, and (c) technology’s unique role in both the relationship-building process and the online student experience.
Research shows that supportive working relationships between students and institutional personnel are vital to student retention. For online students, these relationships are especially essential in preventing a sense of isolation and detachment from their academic experience. Because interactions with online students are most likely to occur via phone and text-based methods, developing retention-supporting relationships can be challenging. This course teaches online communication strategies that foster connection and engagement with online learners. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of (a) retention and attrition research, (b) online learning, and (c) technology’s unique role in both the relationship-building process and the online student experience.
This course explores the critical differences between management and leadership. Participants will be introduced to definitions and myths about each area as well as how management and leadership must coexist for an organization to operate effectively. Participants will explore their own management/leadership tendencies.
Get ready to add a number of skills to your toolkit as you develop as a leader! This course focuses on increased self-awareness in communication styles and learning; developing deeper understanding through empathic listening; and motivating through innovation.
This course provides you with a framework to put your self-discovery and learning into a workable plan to further develop your leadership skills. A step-by-step process is offered to help you create a meaningful Personal Leadership Development Plan (PLDP) complete with the development of SMART Goals and advice from some of today's leaders in the higher education sector.
This course provides a synopsis of the essential tasks of leadership setting direction, aligning people, and motivating others. You will learn how to recognize the skills and characteristics of effective leaders, create an inspiring vision, and energize people to support and work toward your goals.
Focus is essential to effective teamwork. In this course, you learn how to diagnose and overcome common problems - such as poor communication and interpersonal conflict - that can impede team progress. You will also learn to take corrective measures to remove team problems and improve team performance.
In this course, you will learn how to strengthen your coaching skills by using a four-step process to facilitate the professional growth of the employees you coach.
Building a program to ensure a smooth "hand off" from Admissions to Faculty is a critical component of student retention. Applicants often develop a strong bond with their admissions representative that ends (from the institution's standpoint) once they begin classes. This online course provides practical ideas on designing an orientation program, first-week-of-class and other retention activities that connect the student with faculty, the college and each other that will help you retain and graduate more students.
This course is a collection of ideas and best practices drawn from the implementation of enrollment growth strategies at over 300 educational institutions nationwide. The course is based on a highly successful in-service training program offered by Dr. Joe Pace, Managing Partner of The Pacific Institute and includes video delivery of Pace's presentations. Filled with practical tips and suggestions, the course also discusses the application of current research results on human behavior and organizational culture to enhance student enrollment and retention. This is a unique course that will dramatically change your perspective on institutional effectiveness.