Natural Health School Orientation

Welcome to Natural Health School! I’m Dr. Duane Weed, your instructor. This course uses the programmed learning technique, a new approach to learning developed by psychologists in the latter part of the twentieth century. I have chosen this method because it is easily adaptable to the online environment. It has also proven to be superior to most other methods of learning, including the traditional lecture approach, which served its usefulness before the age of the printing press—long before computers.
The programmed learning technique consists of a series of exercises or programs (in our case web “pages.”) Each page is designed to give you a little more information about the topic being presented, as well as a question on the material just covered. As you work through the programs your knowledge will gradually but systematically grow. Don’t worry if you miss some of the questions. They are not designed to test you but rather to aid the learning process.
A key aspect of programmed learning is immediate feedback after each question. In an online environment, another very powerful dimension can be added: The responses you receive will often vary according to the answers you input. In this way, every student’s course will be slightly different according to his or her individual needs. Here’s how it works:
You will be presented with a page of text followed by a “multiple choice” question. You are to select the best answer to the question by clicking on the button to the left of your selection. You will then press the “Continue” button to advance to the next page where you will receive immediate feedback on your answer and will be presented with the next page of the lesson. If you are unsure about an answer don’t hesitate to guess.
In many cases, you will be given one or more assignments at the end of the lesson. This will usually consist of an article presented elsewhere on this web site for you to read, or a sound recording for you to listen to. These will be “hypertexted” or “linked” for you. Click on the link to read the article or to hear the recording. When you have finished use the “back” button of your browser to return to where you left the lesson.
You will also notice that there are occasionally other words or phrases in the lessons that are hypertexted or linked. These are not assignments but optional links that may be followed if you desire further information on a particular word or topic. If you find that pursuing these links interferes with the flow of the lessons then they should be ignored. You will have a chance to review these terms at the end of each lesson where a list of review words is presented and hyperlinked.
The lessons of Natural Health School are listed on the index page. It is recommended that you first complete the lessons in Unit 1 in the order in which they are presented. The other lessons may be completed in any order.
At the end of each lesson, you may take a self-evaluation for feedback on how well you have mastered the material in that lesson. After completing the self-evaluation you will receive a recommendation to either proceed to the next lesson or to repeat the same lesson. These self-evaluations are part of the learning process and are for your use only. We do not keep the results. It will be up to you to decide whether or not to proceed. It will also be up to you to keep track of the lessons that you have completed.
When you have completed all the lessons of Natural Health School you may take the final evaluation. After completing and submitting this evaluation you will receive immediate feedback informing you of your score. A score of 80% or better is considered satisfactory. If you do not score 80% or better don’t worry, you may retake this evaluation as many times as you need to. It is recommended however that you repeat the lessons you were weakest on before retaking the evaluation. Only when you have scored 80% or better is a copy of your results automatically e-mailed to your instructor. This is so I will know that you qualify for a Certificate of Completion if you have paid the registration fee. After successfully completing the final evaluation you are immediately presented with another opportunity to register and pay the voluntary $59.95 fee.