Waking Up

I fell asleep in my very first class in undergrad. Once I was able to take seminar courses everything was fine, but those lectures? Nope. A few years after undergrad, I started PT school—and promptly fell asleep in my first class, and in every non-lab class after that. And I love PT. I can’t really describe how much I love PT in all its forms. But my brain absolutely hates being talked at. I had to be creative in my studying—no cramming for this girl! Everything was active learning, whether that meant doing reading on an elliptical or creating my own patient scenarios and walking through them. But I took very little away from lecture.

I have the same problem with continuing education courses. Frankly, I avoid in-person courses because I will fall asleep in them, and so they’re not worth my time (and also it’s embarrassing). Online courses are even worse. I just end up taking the section quizzes twice, just to get the CEUs, because what’s the point?

That’s been one of my biggest motivations as we have been putting together courses for Trailhead Learning. What, indeed, is the point of continuing education? Research shows that students are going to forget 90% of what they are taught via lecture—and that’s if they manage to stay awake! A PT friend of mine confided that she always goes to courses with a colleague, not to save money on a hotel or to have a date for dinner, but because unless they rehash the entire course on the drive home, they’ll forget everything anyway. This is one of the smartest, most motivated women I’ve ever met, and if she can’t do it, no one can.

But what happens if we treat each other like grown-ups and use real active learning techniques? How much of the course material would stick? What would the weeks and months after the course look like? Maybe instead of sleeping through class, we can wake up to the potential of collaborative learning?