鈥淚f I had a crystal ball鈥�,鈥� is a phrase I have heard (and used!) many times in my professional career, especially over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reality is no one has a crystal ball to see into the future. Each of us holds our own crystal ball to the future of work, healthcare, and technology. The best steps we can take as professionals to prepare for the future are to commit to training, adaptability, and resilience 鈥� and understand that the future we are forging towards is very much a product of the work we put in today.

Training, adaptability, and resilience – I鈥檒l take some time to reflect on each of those themes with hindsight as 20-20 lens from my own career. I鈥檓 thankful for the opportunity to serve on WCU鈥檚 Program Advisory Committee to share my own experiences to serve the next generation of healthcare and business leaders.

Training

Training and professional development take many forms throughout one鈥檚 career and can be both formal and informal. Having the mindset of being a lifelong learner and choosing to seek out learning opportunities are important when deciding to further enhance one鈥檚 skillset, knowledge, and expertise. Identifying development opportunities that set your future self for success might seem challenging, but you can ask yourself if you are getting both practical knowledge and developmental depth out of the experience.

More than a decade ago, when technology and digital tools were only a small part of education and work, I committed to pursuing a healthcare administration MBA that was both in-person and online 鈥� this experience led me to opportunities within the professional side of healthcare and eventually inspired me to create a company first 鈥渞emote鈥� team. Being a part of a novel program dramatically shifted my mindset of how work could be done. When I made the decision to pursue the degree, I didn鈥檛 know that the skills I learned in my educational pursuit would so directly impact the skills I needed in my professional career 鈥� but looking back I can now see that the professional growth was a result of expanding my educational horizon.

Adaptability

I like to think of adaptability as evolution, but at a higher rate of speed. In today鈥檚 healthcare world, adaptability is of utmost importance 鈥� especially as we think about the rapidly changing landscape over the past several years.听 Technology has expanded to impact patient care in ways that will be a part of the future of healthcare including application of Artificial Intelligence, deep data integrations, streamlining clinical processes, and many other technological innovations developed through years of practice and research. The steps and care we take today with patient experience and outcomes in mind will set a higher bar of expectations in the future.

When I first began my career in healthcare, I couldn鈥檛 have imagined that there would be a Primary Care Physician I could access on-demand, 24/7 through a text-based app. 听But, because of innovation and adaptability within healthcare, coupled with advances in technology, I am a part of an organization (98point6脪) whose vision is to expand access to primary care by putting technology in the hands of providers.

Resilience

Resilience builds on adaptability; resiliency is being amenable to adaptability, sustained over time. Building resilience is not a singular moment or act but is a commitment to progress and persistence. Rather than shying away from resilience, we should seek out opportunities to become more resilient 鈥� embrace the unknowns, become comfortable with being uncomfortable, and remember that our journeys are not always linear.

Linking my present resiliency to the path it took to get here, it鈥檚 much easier to see a complete picture of my professional journey, starting my career in a new field of healthcare navigation at the forefront of the concept, to health plan leadership positions, to now developing virtual care strategies with health plans and other industry leading organizations. Resilience varies for each of us 鈥� for me, resilience is something I put into practice each day in a different way. Some days, resilience is a grind 鈥� other days, resilience is taking a deep breath and reflecting on the journey of what led us to the now.听 Without persistence and resilience, there is no progress.

The future is always unknown, but the day-to-day journey to get there is a strong indicator of what we will be prepared for in the future. Don鈥檛 be afraid to take the risks and challenge yourself and others 鈥� you just might find yourself leading others (crystal ball or not!) to a better future.

##########

About the Author

Mallory Sumner has more than a decade of healthcare leadership experience. Her healthcare career journey has included development and consulting work during the early days of healthcare navigation, leading large healthcare delivery teams for health plans, to her current role at 98point6 where she is responsible for virtual care strategy and growth. 98point6 is a healthcare technology company that provides on-demand virtual primary care and integrated behavioral health. Mallory holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of North Texas, a Master of Business Administration in Health Services Management from the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center School of Public Health. In December of 2022, Mallory will complete a Master of Legal Studies in Healthcare Law and Policy at Texas A&M University School of Law. Mallory is in the University of North Texas Athletics Hall of Fame (Class of 2018) for her athletic and academic accomplishments as a D-1 softball student athlete. Mallory resides in the Central Texas area with her husband, Andrew, and their three young children. She spends her free time coaching t-ball, reading, and enjoying extended family.

The post Work, Healthcare, and Technology 鈥� Who needs a Crystal Ball? appeared first on 国产主播.

By Dr. Tammi Cooper

There is no doubt that currency, relevancy, and industry-focus are important aspects of business degrees, but with the fast pace of change in today鈥檚 business world, wide-ranging topic areas, and time required to adapt curriculum in online courses, it can be a challenge. Something different, beyond our traditional approach, was needed. Providing students with access to the knowledge and perspectives of a variety of industry practitioners, the most up-to-date content, and a laser focus on what is relevant in business now 鈥� EVERYDAY, was our goal when we began considering how to ensure our business degrees would be different. Partnering with the world鈥檚 largest professional networking company, LinkedIn, to leverage their learning system offered the solution we needed and much more to our business students.

What is LinkedIn Learning

provides unlimited access to thousands of videos and courses in business and other topics. It allows students an opportunity to learn new skills, bolster their resumes, and enhance their LinkedIn profiles. However, at WCU, we wanted our business students to receive academic credit while earning industry relevant certificates of completion. To do this, we integrated LinkedIn Learning into our core business courses.

How does LinkedIn Learning Work?

Through a seamless single-sign-on process, BSBA and MBA students have access to LinkedIn Learning collections aligned with the main topics of their business courses from within our learning management system. During one designated week of each course, students choose a LinkedIn Learning option from a collection we curated. This image is an example of our collection for BUS 535 Organizational Behavior and Leadership.

Once students complete the LinkedIn Learning option of their choice, they upload the certificate of completion to our learning management system as the assignment submission for that week. Students receive credit for an assignment while simultaneously earning recognition on the world鈥檚 largest professional networking site.

What are the Benefits of LinkedIn Learning?

• Personalized and Flexible: Student choose a topic that interests them from their business course and explore it further in LinkedIn Learning.
• Industry Relevant: LinkedIn Learning courses are created by industry practitioners from a broad range of fields.
• Academically Aligned: Each LinkedIn Learning collection is curated to align with the main topics of each core business course.
• Building a Professional Presence: Students receive certificates of completion to add to their LinkedIn profile and bolster their resume. Using LinkedIn also encourages students to engage in professional networking.
• Creating a WCU Professional Community: Our online faculty and staff have access to LinkedIn Learning, can explore alongside our students, and model lifelong learning as a key part of continued professional growth.

听

###############

About the author: Dr. Tammi Cooper serves as the Program Dean for Business Administration at WCU. She has over a decade of experience as an educator and leader. She began her career as a management faculty member and went on to serve in a variety of leadership positions including as a vice-president for innovation, associate provost, and in various dean roles. Her experience includes, strategic planning, strategy execution, accreditation, leading and designing assessment processes, competency-based education (CBE), innovative change, faculty听leadership, and student success efforts. Dr. Cooper is an active supporter of innovations in higher education, having participated in the Educause Breakthrough Models Academy, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board鈥檚 CBE work group, and earning a Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate. In addition, she has served three times as an examiner for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program; the nation鈥檚 only Presidential award for performance excellence.

听

WCU Distance education programs are delivered out of the California and Texas campuses and may not be available to residents in all states.

The post Integration of LinkedIn Learning appeared first on 国产主播.

WCU Chief Information Officer Segar Annamalai said the primary reason to introduce the HoloLens was to improve student learning opportunities by providing an innovative, individualized experience that met the needs of visual learners.

“The results so far speak for themselves,” Annamalai said. “There’s been between a one- or two-letter grade improvement from pre-test to post-test scores. Students at WCU-Los Angeles had a 10 percent improvement in test scores compared to last year when there was no AR.”

Working closely with Microsoft to pilot the HoloLens and implement augmented reality in the classroom, WCU challenged ourselves to look at different opportunities to enhance the student learning experience in new ways. The technology allows our students to enlarge, isolate, dissect and even walk inside every system and part of the human body.

鈥淲e used to say that there are three types of learners: visual, auditory or kinesthetic. But as we start to implement technology into the classroom, we鈥檒l start to see a rise of mutual learners,鈥� WCU-Los Angeles associate professor Shahram Bakhtiari said. 鈥淔or students that learn best when they are immersed in the subject and they feel themselves in the environment, AR (augmented reality) is the gateway to that future.鈥�

Students are also using the headsets in more specific scenarios that can’t be duplicated by simply using in a textbook, like walking through a human eye to see its components or seeing what happens to the heart during a heart attack.

鈥淚’m always interested in learning about new technology so the fact that WCU implemented AR into nursing is so cool. It鈥檚 just an insane breakthrough that we are going to be able to use now, and keeping using far into the future,鈥� WCU-LA BSN student Justin Ridolfi said.

This technology has allowed our students to grasp concepts at a deeper level and truly excel in the course. We are excited to be partnering with Microsoft and Medivis to implement and integrate the HoloLens and the augmented reality software at such a large scale into our curriculum.

鈥湽鞑� is always trying to be the pioneers of the field of education technology and that student-centricity will help our students so when they go into the field they are in very听good shape, very good capacity and they鈥檙e up-to-date,鈥澨鼴akhtiari听said. 鈥淎nd that’s beautiful.

The post WCU-LA Anatomy Students See Full Letter Grade Improvement Using HoloLens appeared first on 国产主播.