Page 49 - JRCERT Pulse Newsletters
P. 49
COVID and Other FAQs
Innovation in
Education Q. Should I be documenting for my records the changes that I have made to my curriculum
due to COVID-19? Do I need to submit those changes to the JRCERT?
A. Yes, all changes to standard operating procedures of the program should be
Excellence in education is the documented by the program. This documentation can be detailed directly on the
program’s contingency plan, through meeting minutes, and/or documentation records
driving force of the JRCERT
by the program director. The documentation may include courses that were taught in
and with that comes creativity the online environment when they are typically taught in the traditional classroom
and flexibility to ensure environment; advisory council meetings that were postposed or conducted in the
virtual environment instead of in-person; or changes in course rotation and sequencing,
student and program success.
clinical scheduling impacts, etc. Due to the many constraints our programs are facing,
One of the JRCERT’s core the JRCERT understands that assessment tools and measurements may be
values is to encourage impacted. Programs will want to also document the impacts to assessment outcomes,
in terms of availability of outcomes and situational impacts on student performance.
educational innovation as
At this time, the JRCERT is not requiring specific documentation regarding COVID-19
identified in the 2021
impacts on the program be submitted to the office.
Standards for an Accredited
Educational Program. Some Q. How do I address COVID-related accommodations made when I complete my Program
Annual Report?
examples of innovative
practices may include various A. The Program Annual Report currently being collected is for the 2019 calendar year.
Any COVID related modifications would not have been in effect for this time period.
methods of instructional
These adjustments will be addressed on next year’s Program Annual Report.
delivery, to include distance
Q. Our program is not learning on campus, but we would still like our students to have
education, interprofessional
laboratory experiences. Can we use synchronous learning, where students over video
education, or creative clinical dictate to faculty in the lab how to complete the exercises?
scheduling. If you would like
A. No. While synchronous (or asynchronous) learning is appropriate for didactic
to share your innovative instruction, laboratory experiences are meant to be hands-on with the students.
practices, please submit a
Q. Our program is having some difficulty getting back into our clinical settings. While we
short abstract of 100 words or
have prioritized getting our second-year students into clinical, can our first-year students
less, describing your complete clinical hours in our laboratory?
innovative educational A. No. Laboratory experiences cannot take the place of student clinical hours.
practices, as well as your
Q. I just wanted to confirm that we cannot send students to new clinical settings until the
contact information, to
JRCERT has approved these facilities, even though our local state has approved these
innovation@jrcert.org no later facilities. I am basing this off of: In accordance with JRCERT policy, clinical sites must be
than January 31, 2021. approved by the JRCERT before students are assigned to the site. Is that correct?
A. This is correct. JRCERT Policy 11.400, Procedure 11.405D, “requires that programs
The JRCERT will compile these
apply for recognition of clinical settings and receive approval prior to placement of
resources which will be placed students.”
on our website to share with
Q. For program consolidation, is it considered a substantive change if a course is eliminated
our accredited programs.
and course content is added to an existing course? This would result in some existing
Thank you for your continued courses increasing in credits, but the overall program content, outcomes, and total credits
would not change - it would just be rearranged and condensed.
support of programmatic
accreditation. A. Please refer to JRCERT Policy 11.400, Procedure 11.408 which can be located
here. It is considered a substantive change when the addition/deletion of more than
two courses occur. This would include eliminating courses and adding curriculum
content to established courses. Again, if this occurs in more than two courses, then a
substantive change would have to be approved by the JRCERT Board of Directors prior
4 to implementation.
