Discussion

The goal in education is successful outcomes; success for the student, the program and the institution. One way to help achieve success is to carefully design the student learning environment. Your Unit 1 readings refer to practical ways to create an environment conducive to learning. All dental hygiene programs across the United States must meet accreditation standards set forth by the for Dental Hygiene Programs. During this course, we will be referring to the CODA document as you develop your practical, evidence-based teaching strategies in clinical education. The CODA standards are important to understand and follow. Every dental hygiene program must receive official accreditation approval and then it is important for each program to follow the standards during the day-to-day operations of the program. All dental hygiene educators are expected to know, understand, and follow these standards. Every team member plays a role in this process…from part-time to full-time.

For your Main Post, research and address the prompts below as you refer to the CODA document and engage in the unit discussion:

Discuss practical ways to create an environment that is conducive to learning that also meets the CODA standards.

• It will be important to download and save the CODA standards as we will refer to them throughout this course and it is truly the roadmap for all programs.
• What do you remember from your first semester of dental hygiene school?
• Do you remember the Program Director and Faculty referring to the CODA standards throughout your curriculum?
• Based on your Chapter 1 readings about creating an effective learning environment, provide some examples of how you would prepare for a new class.
• If you were designing an effective learning environment, how you would meet each of these standards (Provide a 2-3 sentence paragraph for each standard).
• Number of enrolled students (Standard 2-5)
• Initial written and oral communications (Standard 2-6 and 2-7)
• Student to faculty ratios (Standard 3-5)
• Safety (Standard 3-10)
• Clinic Facilities (Standard 4-1)