How Weber State’s New Medical
Terminology Course Works
Most Important Points
Everything is digital
The textbook is a “smartbook” that the student accesses online.
The assignments are done through the Learnsmart and Connect systems.
Learnsmart: Allows students to be assessed on what they learned through
their reading. It then highlights areas in the book that need more attention based on
the student’s performance. It also provides feedback to the instructor about which
parts of the chapter were the most challenging to the students. The student can also
pause and go back to the text anytime during the activity to find answers or refresh
the information they read. The student will complete the entire assignment in order
to get the 10 points, which are automatically added to the grade book in Canvas. On
campus we intend to have students complete these Learnsmart activities before
they come to class. Because we anticipate these activities being done at home, there
is no allowance for missed assignments. The Learnsmart activities will be worth 10
points each for a total of 130.
Connect (referred to as “in class assignments”): These are essentially
collections of questions from the chapter that the students would answer as a sort of
chapter quiz. On campus, we will be doing these activities in class to wrap up our
lecture stuff. In the future we will have a good idea of which concepts students
struggle with the most. For now, we put together question banks of about 50
questions from which we are selecting 10 questions for our on campus students.
The online students will receive more questions because they will not have the time
requirements involved in coming to class. The activities are done through the same
system as Learnsmart, it is just a different type of activity. They are worth 10 points
and are automatically sent to the Canvas grade book. Students may miss one of
these activities without a penalty (the total points for these assignments is 120
instead of 130).
Exams: In addition to the two assignments for each chapter that will be done
through the Connect/Learnsmart systems, the students will take three total exams
through Chitester, the computerized testing program Weber State developed and
has used for more than a decade. These will be closed book exams the students will
take in a secure testing environment. Most likely this will be done in a computer lab
under the supervision of the instructor. The Chitester exam questions will be drawn
from the question banks that accompany the textbook. They will be 50 questions,
worth a total of 100 points. The instructors will receive the passwords from Dr.
Price prior to the exams. These 3 exams will be worth 300 points.
Other activities or assignments: Instructors are welcome to build unique activities
in Learnsmart/Connect or may develop and use activities that they feel best
enhance the learning of medical terminology concepts. To be considered concurrent
with Weber State’s medical terminology course, however, these activities cannot be
point bearing. The only point bearing activities are those described above. In other
words, you cannot add points to the total points possible in the course. There are no
extra credit opportunities, exam retakes, or dropped scores on campus so these
things cannot occur in the concurrent sections either.