Steven Skaggs, PA-C, graduated on December 10th, 2021. He received his degree in Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching, with a specialization in Instructional Technology, from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Skaggs’ dissertation, which was the big final project and sum total of his efforts within the PhD program, analyzed the perceptions of a group of students that took a post-Covid online anatomy course and compared the post-Covid group academic performance to that of a pre-Covid, or in-person, anatomy course group. His study revealed that the students had an overall positive perception of the anatomy course’s online elements, and, regarding academic performance, the course delivery method yielded no significant difference between the online and in-person groups. Bottom line, the research revealed that online anatomy is an acceptable surrogate for face-to-face anatomy. It took him a little over four years to get the dissertation done (August 2017 to December 2021).
Going forward, he plans to keep working in Physician Assistant (PA) Education. This will include continuing his studies in healthcare education and adult learning. Specifically, Dr. Skaggs would like to investigate less traditional instructional strategies (i.e., critical thinking, learner-centered, problem/project-based, and flipped classroom), along with the integration of instructional technology and novel/unique teaching strategies into higher learning curricula.
Steven Skaggs, PA-C was interviewed in July 2021. At that time, he was completing his dissertation work. We caught up with him because he has completed his PhD!
Read his original story by Janet Li, here.
https://sapeopleproject.org/steven-skaggs-an-educator-who-happens-to-be-a-pa/
Story: Janet Li
