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Teaching COVID-19 to students

Teaching COVID-19 to students

by Erlinda Posadas -
Number of replies: 0

I believe that it is not simply the strategies or improving our teaching skills that we have to be concerned of in adapting to the use of distance education and online learning. More importantly, what content of the lessons should we now stress to impart to our students now that the whole world, our entire nation are severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? We simply cannot teach them our old lessons again or copy from the books which do not have anything about COVID-19.  Of course, we have to study well the events around us. For me in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in the Cebu Institute of Medicine, I have to relate COVID-19 when I teach about epidemiology, or teach about the epidemiology of the disease, and how it has affected the economy, the health sector, the social aspects of the people which have an effect on the people's health.  When I teach biostatistics, I have to present the statistics on COVID-19 and teach my students how to interpret data of the Department of Health and the WHO, and how to use the data in controlling the epidemic.  When I teach community health,  I have to relate how community efforts or social distancing, wearing face masks and personal hygiene, quarantine, and updating oneself with the news, are important to contain the epidemic. There are many courses in public health that I am going to engage in this school year that I have to relate with the pandemic. This is a challenge for me.   I believe this will be too, for many of us in the health education sector.