With a little creativity, faculty managed to keep massage therapy students on track during forced distance learning
You’re going to do what? Teach massage therapy online? Is that even possible? How’s that going to work? These are just a few reactions I received from faculty and students when we were approved to begin moving to online education and an increased reliance on technology in the classroom due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
At Pacific College of Health and Science, we were already accustomed to using technology in the classroom, such as Moodle, to host all of our course handouts, online quizzes, assignments, grade books, and more. In addition, some of our faculty regularly used PowerPoint, YouTube videos, and other media in their lectures and presentations.
However, our massage faculty had never taught or held an online class. It was a new concept for us, and frankly, a new concept for massage therapy education in general. Because massage education leads to a licensed profession in most states, each state determines what is allowable when it comes to the delivery of this education.