Instruction
Current Events: Purpose:
The objective of the course is to explore health policy from an economic perspective. It is important to be current with regards to new and on-going discussion of how sectors of the US healthcare systems are impacted by public policy and the economic forces that govern the delivery of care. Engaging and keeping up-to-date with the shifting and changing world of health administration develops of pattern of leadership that will be important in the future. To provide students and the professor an opportunity to actively engage in asynchronous discussion.
Instructions:
Each student will be responsible for posting, in a specific format, three (3) current events over the course. Students will be assigned the weeks that they will be posting their Current Event. The Current Event must relate to the chapters currently being assigned that week and not be more than two months old.
The rest of the class is responsible for posting comments on at least three (3) current events each week. The lead person is responsible for moderating the discussion and answering or expanding on comments. The lead person takes the role of instructor and relates the current event to the chapters in the text. The lead person then manages the discussion and engages other students to expand their current knowledge of the topic.
Format for the posting of the Current Event:
• Student’s name
• Title of the current event; new story; article in a journal or newspaper; blog
• Full citation including URL of source
• Synopsis: Summary of what the subject of the current event is about and what are the major points of the story.
• Discussion: {Critical Thinking} Your evaluation of the subject of the current event and its importance to healthcare delivery in the US (or international if appropriate) or the importance to health administrators. Do you think the current event was well documented and did the author/source present a good argument for the importance of the story?
• Questions for discussion: At the end of the current event you are to ask the class no more than two questions that are intended to encourage discussion.
Resources to complete the assignment:
There are many free sources for current events. The following are a few suggestions:
• www.chcf.org
• www.kff.org
• Professional journals
• Newsletter and blog posting from professional associations
• The Wall Street Journal and other major newspapers
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Grading Rubric:
Your grade for the lead on the Current Event will be based on the criteria below:
• Appropriateness of the current event in the context of the chapters being discussed that week
• Followed the specific format for the post.
• Followed the Online Discussion Forum Guidelines (See below).
• Relevance of discussion posts and response to other posts
• Provided leadership in managing the conversation about the post.
Online Discussion Forum Guidelines
Online discussions pose an opportunity for rich and meaningful learning and interaction. Active and regular participation is important as a means of learning and reflecting on course content and making higher level connections between weekly topics.
Each week your discussion forum postings and responses will be graded on these criteria:
• Demonstrate a thoughtful approach to the content, not just a summary.
• Cite research, class readings and supporting evidence in your discussion posts and responses to demonstrate your understanding and to share your reasoning with other participants.
• Incorporate quotes from other participants’ responses as a way of synthesizing and extending the conversation.
• Relate new content to what you have already learned in the course to date.
• Relate content to your own personal experiences, professional experiences or current events.
• Critically analyze the content, be grammatically correct and proofread for spelling errors. It counts in the real world, so it counts here too.
• Make your initial posts early in the week giving others time to keep the discussion going.
• Initial postings and responses need to extend discussions already taking place, or pose new possibilities or opinions not previously stated comments.
• Demonstrate evidence of graduate-level thinking about the topics and professional interactions with other participants.
• Demonstrate that you have interesting and provocative things to contribute to the discussion.