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• The Program's objective is to enhance the knowledge and skills of health care professionals to meet the public health preparedness and emergency response demands resulting from acts of bioterrorism and other incidents.

Educational objectives

1. To encourage Problem-based learning: The defining characteristics Problem-based learning (PBL) are: (a) learning is driven by messy, open-ended problems, (b) students work in small collaborative groups, and (c) teachers are facilitators of learning. Accordingly, students are encouraged to take responsibility for their group and organize and direct the learning process with support from a tutor or instructor. Advocates of PBL claim it can be used to enhance content knowledge and foster the development of communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning skills. [Hmelo-Silver, C. E. 2004, Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review, 16, 235-266.]

2. To encourage experiential learning: Experiential education is the process of actively engaging students in an authentic experience that will have benefits and consequences. Students make discoveries and experiment with knowledge themselves instead of hearing or reading about the experiences of others. Students also reflect on their experiences, thus developing new skills, new attitudes, and new theories or ways of thinking. [Kraft, D., & Sakofs, M. (Eds.) 1988, The theory of experiential education. Boulder, CO: Association for Experiential Education]

3. To provide opportunities for self-paced learning at point of need.