Fall term, first Saturday after Labour Day, online

A half-day orientation with the Program Director to provide a program overview and details on the academic requirements.

Fall term, 8 weeks

This course examines the major philosophical foundations of teaching and learning, and their practical applications to health sciences education. Philosophical traditions will be considered within the context of historical conceptions and emerging theoretical perspectives within health sciences education.

Fall/Winter terms, 8 weeks

This course examines theories of learning and the related implications for effective education in health sciences education. Students will explore how educator/learner orientation, characteristics, and actions, and resource constraints influence learning outcomes in health sciences practice.

Winter term, 8 weeks

This course offers an overview of the broad spectrum of quantitative and qualitative research, with an emphasis on the health sciences educator as a researcher and knowledge mobilizer. Students will explore research planning, improving the readability of research reporting, and translating results into practice.

Spring term, 1 week, on campus

This course explores key principles of curriculum design and provides opportunities for students to apply these principles in their individual domains of health sciences education.

Fall term, 8 weeks

This course provides an overview of the foundational principles, methods, ethics, and standards that underpin evaluation. These principles will be considered within the various contexts of health sciences education.

Fall/Winter terms, 8 weeks

This course explores the theoretical and applied principles of technology integration to enhance teaching and learning. It provides opportunities for students to apply these principles in their individual domains of health sciences education. This course includes a technology lab component.

Winter term, 8 weeks

This course offers an overview of foundational theory in educational assessment. Students will apply key concepts and principles to evaluate and make inferences about students' knowledge, skills, and competencies to inform educational practice in health sciences contexts.

Spring term, 8 weeks

This course focuses on applying educational assessment theory to inform context-specific assessment design, implementation, and evaluation.

Any Term, approval required

This course provides opportunities for students to select a specialized topic related to their capping project, conduct a specialized type of review of the literature (e.g. scoping review, critical review) or develop their writing skills for dissemination. The topic for study is discussed and agreed upon with the Program Director. Students work at their own pace and will complete a project by the end of the course. A presentation of the completed project is required. Dates for this course follow the academic calendar for fall, winter, spring and summer semesters.

Registration in this course also provides an opportunity to receive credit for intensive profession related courses or workshops taken by the student but not eligible for university credit. For example, Coursera offers free online courses you can take and then register for an independent study. As an example, Essentials in Clinical Simulations Across the Health Professions is one course offered through Coursera that can be taken and used for an independent study.

If in one semester there are at least 10 students interested in an independent study, we register them in EDHS 597 Seminar in Advanced Studies in Health Professional Education.

Contact medhse@ualberta.ca for more information or to register. 

Any Term, approval required

This seminar course is offered when there are more than 10 students interested in taking an independent study in one semester. It runs similarly to the independent study. The topic for study is discussed and agreed upon with the Program Director. This course provides opportunities for students to select a specialized topic related to their capping project, conduct a specialized type of review of the literature (e.g. scoping review, critical review) or develop their writing skills for dissemination. Students work at their own pace and will complete a project by the end of the course. A presentation of the completed project is required.

Contact medhse@ualberta.ca for more information or to register. 

This course is an examination of contemporary research qualitative methodologies in the field of health professions education (HPE). The course includes didactic, interactive, and hands-on experiences. The emphasis of this course will be on qualitative inquiry. There will 2-3 guest lectures who are experts in a particular methodology (phenomenology, narrative enquiry etc). This will enable students to learn from experts involved in qualitative research. The goal of this course is to provide the groundwork necessary to pursue qualitative research in HPE. The course is very much weighted on practical sessions, students will have the opportunity to actively participant in the class discussion, to practice interviewing, observational skills, transcribe interviews, and analyze data. The students will work in small groups and analysis the data they collect through interviews they conduct with their peers in class. This will allow them to experience how data is coded and how themes/ categories emerge.

Contact medhse@ualberta.ca for more information or to register.