1. Subject Matter Expert Course
What is a PMI Subject Matter
Expert?
This tutorial will explain what it means to be a subject matter at Pima Medical Institute. You’ll also get an inside look at one of our online courses.
Presented by PMI Online

2. Animation
Without a SME, an online course would probably just involve students reading their textbooks and completing assignments—learning on their own without the benefit of anyone’s experience. The added value a PMI online course provides is the SME’s experience in that area. The materials a SME creates for an online course puts the SME’s “voice” (figuratively-speaking) into the course.
The SME also guides development by letting the Online Department know:
What students need to do,
What students need to know to do what they need to do, and
What the book leaves out as far as what they need to know.
A SME should have a clear understanding of:
What an online course is comprised of,
The role of an online instructor, as well as
How an online student learns.
When explaining what a SME does, it’s also very important to explain what a SME does NOT do.
A SME does NOT copy the textbook and paste it into the course content section.
A SME does create content that enhances the reading material.
A SME does NOT videotape him/herself talking about the subject.
A SME does research to find videos, images and interactive multimedia that addresses all types of learners—audio, visual, textual, and hands-on.
A SME does NOT limit online content to the information in the textbook chapter.
A SME does present his own experience and expertise on the subjects covered.
<<Please insert other “DO NOTs”>>

3. Screen recording inside a Bb course
Now it’s time to take a peek at one of our courses from the student’s perspective. <<Use Advanced Modalities Course RA403>>
COURSE SYALLABUS
When a student logs into the course in Blackboard for the first time, they may want to check out the Course Syllabus.
<<They don’t create the syllabus—the Education Dept. does.>>
INTRODUCTION LESSON
To get to the first lesson, students will click Course Content. The courses are broken down into lessons. The introduction lesson is mostly the same for each course. It tells the student that online courses are broken down into three components: software, content, and participants. At the end of every lesson, students are directed where to go and how to get there. So let’s click the Back button and then Scavenger Hunt.
Students must click to download the file then open it up from their local disk. The purpose of the Scavenger Hunt is to familiarize students with the menu to the left. If we know they’ve completed the Scavenger Hunt, then we know they’ve at least peeked into each of the items. Also, students must know how to save their files in the Rich Text Format. If they don’t, we’ll find that out during the Scavenger Hunt before any of their assignments are due. When turning in documents, students must use the given naming convention and turn it in as directed. They do not turn assignments in via . They must upload it in Blackboard so that Blackboard can keep track of assignments in the Grade Center.
Onto the introduction discussion board. The purpose of this thread is to familiarize students with one another as students are asked to post a little bit of information about themselves. It’s a good way to break the ice amongst classmates and start forming an online community within the class. This thread also a good way to get students thinking about what they may already know of the course. For example, in a Macroeconomics course, students are asked to tell of a time when they got something for free. Then they are instructed to use Lesson 1 to help them with their answer. Use this thread as a way to get students to link their current knowledge to what they’ll be learning in the course. This is a technique you will want to use often. So, be creative!
LESSON
When we click into any other lesson ((Click on Clinical Applications)), there’s always an introduction and at least one topic. There may also be graded activities such as an assignment, discussion,, quiz, or exam.
INTRODUCTION
Scroll back up to the introduction. When students click on the introduction, the objectives tell them what they should be able to do after completing the entire lesson.
TOPIC
Let’s look at the topic called Clinical Applications. The notes section shouldn’t just be an exact replica of the reading assignment. Try to expand on what the students have read. If something in the textbook wasn’t explained thoroughly, use the notes section to expound on that information. You can also provide a different screnario or case study that will help students understand how the information will be useful to them in the field. Some links in this topic page ((click Renal Cysts and Article)) take students to a website or online document that contains more detailed information on the topic should they need it. Other links take the students to websites with videos or related images. There are a vast number and variety of resources on the internet for every subject so don’t be afraid to tap into them.
ASSIGNMENT
Let’s go back now and click on the assignment. Students will click on Click to read this file and then they’ll be prompted to save the file to their local disk. Notice that all documents are .rtf files. All SMEs must use the PMI templates for all assignments, discussion boards, and so on. There’s a space at the top right-hand corner for students to enter their name. Then the title is on the left followed by this thick blue border. Once again, the objectives tell the student what they should know how to do after completing the assignment. Points Possible indicate to the student how much the assignment is worth in red and then break it down accordingly.
Now, here are some things to keep in mind when creating an assignment. <<Consider the type of answers students will give when creating an assignment. Do you want students to give answers to questions, or do you want them to have to do some research and put together a short paper? Either might be appropriate, depending on the information the students are learning. Give students specific instructions on what to do and let them know how much detail their answers should include. >>
Down here at the red bullet points, these instructions will always be pretty much the same. First, it tells the student where to put their name which is at the top. Then it tells them what format to save the file. This will always be Rich Text Format. Then it tells them what to name to save the file as. This should be a keyword from the assignment followed by an underscore then the student’s first name. And the last bullet point tells students how to turn their assignment in. They will always have to upload it to Blackboard. The directional text at the bottom tells them what’s next. So, let’s close this document and go to Quiz 2.
QUIZ
Remember to designate how many points the quiz is worth. When they click on Quiz, students will have 30 minutes to complete the quiz. <<Every quiz should use a pool, which is a large group of questions from which a smaller set is pulled for an individual quiz. For example, if you want students to get 20 questions, you should write at least 30. Students will get a random selection of questions from the pool, so not everyone will get the exact same quiz. Multiple-choice and matching questions are best. Other types, such as essay or fill-in-the-blank, are better for an assignment.>>
When students are finished, they will click Submit.
FINAL EXAM/PAPER
If we go to the last lesson, we’ll see that the student has a Final Paper due for this class. Other classes will have a final exam. Directions for completing a final paper are similar to completing an assignment. And a final exam will be structured similarly to a quiz. <<A final exam is best for a course which requires students to learn a lot of facts, such as medical terminology. A final paper is best when you want students to apply what they’ve learned, compare different things, do further research, or use any other higher-level thinking. The final exam or paper is usually worth 10% of the overall points in the course, so it doesn’t need to be a huge assignment worth a lot of points. Instead, think of it as the culmination of the concepts and skills students should have acquired in a particular course.>>

4. Animation
Now that you’ve seen what an existing course looks like, what do you do now? Oftentimes, the best approach is to work backward.
First, ask yourself “What do students need to be able to do?” To answer this, look at the syllabus objectives. The syllabus objectives is a list of what the students need to be able to do. Brainstorm at least one assignment that gives students the opportunity to show they’ve met each objective.
Next, ask yourself, “What will students need to know to be able to complete these graded evaluations?” Look at the textbook. What content is covered? Jot down chapters that contain information for each of the assignments you’ve listed.
Finally, think about what additional information you’ll need to provide. You might want to write notes giving students more details than the book, or notes that explain how to apply the information in the book to the field. Keep in mind that reading the book works for some people, but addressing more learning styles (visual, auditory, etc.) can reach more people and can also help students better understand and remember what they learn.

5. Animation
COURSE MAP
<<Should we include instructions on how to create a course map? Yes! The course map is not usually included in Blackboard, but it is a vital part of course development. The map shows the SME and the Online Education Department the overall structure of the course—how many lessons, how many topics, and how many graded evaluations are there? As you’re submitting materials, we’ll be checking the map and will let you know if something’s missing, based on the map you provide. When the course is built in Blackboard, the map will show us how many lesson folders to create, and how to order the content within it.
If you create a map early on in the development process and then want to change it as you near the end, don’t worry, most SMEs do make changes throughout. The map is actually very helpful for this because once you have it completely filled out and start working on the topics, you might realize you haven’t covered something important, or that there’s too much overlap in some areas.>>

6. Questions? pmar@pmi.edu Pima Medical Institute Online
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Presented by PMI Online
Pima Medical Institute Online