Course Design and Development

Three Tips for Carmen Course Setup

We have only a few days between spring and summer semesters to set up summer Carmen courses, so it’s important to be as efficient as possible during course setup.  These tips might help.

  1.  Page History:  Your Carmen course pages might have beautiful pictures and text formatting that can be ruined with just a single swipe of a misplaced cursor.  If you save changes on a Carmen page that you later regret, there is a solution!  Access Page History at the three-vertical-dots menu on the right side of the page (see 1 in the image below).  You can go back to a previous version of the page where you last saved changes you actually want.  For more detailed instructions, see the Canvas documentation.
  2.  Auto-open File Viewer:  Sometimes, you want a file that is attached to a page in Carmen to open automatically for students so they view it in the Carmen page rather than needing to download it and open it as an attachment.  Enable the “Auto-Open for Inline Preview” option to make this happen.  See the Canvas documentation on this feature.
  3.  I often hear requests for image sources where instructors can find “free” pictures to use in their courses.  Keeping in mind that many pictures on the internet can be copied at no cost, images should always be cited just like written resources are.  If you aren’t sure whether you should use an image or not, please contact your CON-IT team or your copyright librarian for more information.  You can find images that are designated for reuse by others at the following sites:

OSU Photography – scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Browse signature photo gallery”; mainly OSU-themed and higher-education-themed pictures
OSU Digital Storytelling – suggests sites that enable searches for content labeled for reuse
Unsplash – beautiful images on general topics (very few medical pictures)
Pixabay – another site with general image topics
HSL image resources – specific medical images for teaching related purposes; these have very specific terms of use listed here

Many thanks to Sarah Rusnak in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences for sharing these resources and collaborating on these important Carmen tips!

Need Some Spice in Your Classroom? Try Kahoot!

For nursing educators who like their students awake and engaged in class, the challenge of finding activities that are both relevant and exhilarating remains a tough nut to crack.  Some teachers in the College of Nursing and elsewhere have incorporated games into their classrooms to add competition, motivate students to stay engaged with material, and help students remember a lesson long after it ends.  Enter Kahoot!, an online interactive quiz platform that allows the classroom to turn its energy toward the age-old goal of winning a game.

Gamification has gained popularity in recent years as a tool for engaging people in tasks that might otherwise be un-stimulating to the point of boredom (think exercise apps, shoppers rewards programs, and even investing apps that create a prize system to keep users interested.) Several examples of gamification in the nursing education world already exist, such as this study which used Kahoot! to help drive pharmacology lessons home for nursing students.

Kahoot! allows instructors to ask questions with a countdown timer and lets students play against each other, alone or in teams.  You can add a song or video clip to questions as well.  Learn more about Kahoot! on their website, and watch videos that highlight the capabilities of this platform.

Wondering where you can get started using Kahoot! in your classroom? Check out this blog post on using Kahoot! in the college setting.  Next, watch this video on how to get started.  Have you used Kahoot! in your nursing classroom or in other professional development? Please comment below with your experiences!

Addendum (by Joni Tornwall)

Since this article was posted, some frequently asked questions from faculty have come to light:

How do I sign up for a Kahoot account?

The College of Nursing does not currently have a paid account with Kahoot.  Sign up for a free account at kahoot.com.

How do I use Kahoot?

The video Lara references above (1:35) is a good visual demonstration that will help you get started in Kahoot.

How do I launch my first Kahoot quiz in my classroom?

Ask your students to open a browser and go to kahoot.it on their laptop, tablet, or phone. Then, ask them to enter the Game PIN, which you will see on your Kahoot interface after you launch your game at kahoot.com.

Can I use Kahoot to take attendance?

You can see how many students have joined your game, but they may enter a name that is not their own.  If you need to know specifically who is attending your class on any given day, contact the CON IT department to learn about other applications that can easily do this electronically for you, like Top Hat.

References:

Check out NLN TEQ Blog

The National League for Nursing (NLN) TEQ Blog is a resource for nurse educators and faculty who want to stay up to date with innovations in simulation, e-learning, telehealth, and informatics.  It is managed by the NLN Center for Innovation in Simulation and Technology.  Their latest post, Ace.P Unfolding Case – Thomas Sykes, presents a pediatric case study focused on a community approach and provides free resources for download. Another post discusses findings from a national survey on tech growth in nursing education.  Check out the wealth of resources for nurse faculty on this site at nlnteq.org.

Assessing the Quality of Multiple Choice Questions

I am often asked about how one knows whether a multiple choice question is “good” or not. Expertise in the field always makes the final decision, but there are guidelines and statistics that can provide very helpful support in writing and refining multiple choice questions.

Nikole Hicks, PhD, RN, CNE, wrote a Fairness of Items tool (FIT) to guide writing and assessment of multiple choice questions. Read more about her development of this tool. I have her permission to share it with OSU College of Nursing faculty, so email me (Joni) to obtain a copy.

If you are somewhat familiar with statistics and need a quick guide to quiz item analysis, refer to this PDF from Anne Schoening, PhD, RN CNE.

A more detailed explanation of item analysis of quiz questions is presented in this article McGahee and Ball (2009). You can access the full text of the article through the OSU Health Sciences Library.

As always, please consult with the your instructional design experts on the CON-IT team if you need additional assistance with question writing and evaluation.

Choose the Best Answer:  (a) Multiple Choice Quizzes or (b) Specification Grading

If you’ve ever felt the tension between multiple-choice tests and more complex assessments of learning, you are not alone.  Read this EdSurge article on specification grading and its potential advantages over multiple choice exams for student assessment.

The grading tools in CarmenCanvas might make specification grading an efficient approach to engaging your students and finding out more about the course content they have learned and can apply to problems.  The article also makes a case for the right time and way to use multiple choice tests.  If you would like to explore CarmenCanvas tools (rubrics, SpeedGrader, etc.) for specification grading, please contact the mailto:con-it@osu.edu for more information.

Creating a Self-Grading Quiz on H5P

In a previous entry, you learned how to create a set of flashcards on H5P. Flashcards are an excellent study tool, but some students may simply memorize the cards themselves rather than actually learning the underlying concepts. For that reason, an excellent tool to reinforce the material on the flashcards is the self-grading quiz. Below is an example quiz based on this flashcard set:

To create an interactive quiz of your own, go to the H5P content creation screen and select “single choice set” from the drop down menu.

The first dialogue box will set the title for the entire quiz.

In these dialogue boxes, you will fill out the question and up to four possible answers. The form will default to two possible answers. You must click the grey “add answer” button to create new blank answer dialogue boxes. It is important to note that the first dialogue box is for the answer that you want the quiz to grade as correct. It is also important to note that the quiz will randomize the order of all four possible answers. This will be important later.

Question 5 is an important example because I chose to include an “all of the above” style answer. However, it is important to note that even though this answer is the last one on the form, it will not necessarily appear as the last question within that answer set (eg: it could appear answer 1, 2, 3, all of the above OR 1, all of the above, 3, 4 etc.). For this reason, you should choose a wording similar to “all answers are acceptable” and avoid answers that make reference to other answers in terms of their location within the answer set.

This image shows the grade ranges you can choose. This section starts relatively blank. To create the grade ranges for this quiz, I clicked the blue “add range button” until there was one grade range per question, then clicked the white “distribute evenly button.” However, If you choose to, you can manually adjust the grade ranges. The text boxes next to each grade range are the messages that will appear if a student receives a given score.

In these final steps you can further customize the behavior of the quiz and the messages and prompts that appear on the quiz. For this tutorial, these settings have been left as default, however I encourage you to play with these settings and contact CON IT for any additional assistance you may need. As with other content on H5P, you can edit the download, embed, and copyright buttons that will appear. Once you are happy with your quiz, click the pink save button. If you followed these directions, you should end up with a quiz identical to the one at the beginning of this blog post. Once you have completed your quiz, it can be embedded into Carmen or into your u.osu blog for use as a study tool. For help configuring your quiz, or assistance in implementing an H5P quiz in your classes or study groups, please contact CON IT for additional assistance.

Creating Flashcards on H5P

The previous blog entry showed how to make a basic accordion style review tool on H5P. This entry will teach you how to use H5P to create online flashcards. The online flashcard tool is a great way to present a large amount of study material, as long as the material requires only a brief explanation or rationale. The process is a bit more complex than the accordion style list, but the outcome is much more customizable. Below is an example flashcard set to study commonly used medical abbreviations. Most of these cards are simply text on both sides. Cards 3 and 4 give examples of how to use audio and image clues on a flashcard set.

To create a flashcard set, start at the H5P content screen (you will need to create a free account) and select “dialog cards” from the drop down menu.

These first dialogue boxes will set the title for your project, the title that appears at the top of the card pile, and the general instructions for the card pile.

The first dialogue box for your card will determine what shows on the front of the card. The second dialogue box shows what will appear on the back of your card. Initially, you will only have one blank card. To add more cards, you must click the blue “add dialog” button on the left menu.

Card 3 is unique in that I added an audio clue to the card. To do this, scroll down until you see the section for “audio files” then click on the grey rectangle to upload your audio file. You can upload audio files with a URL or from uploading a saved MP3 from your computer. It’s also possible to record your own audio files to upload. It’s important to be aware of any copyrights your file may have, and to cite them properly. Citations will appear in the “Rights of Use” button on your flashcard set.

Card 4 is unique because it has a visual clue that appears on the card (images will appear on the front and back of the card). Images are uploaded just like audio files, except you will upload images under the “image” section. Just like audio files, be aware of the copyrights your image may have and cite them properly.

At the bottom of the page you will have the option to further edit actions and behaviors of the card deck. For this tutorial I left those options as default, but I encourage you to play with them and contact CON IT for any additional assistance you may need. You will also have the option of editing what buttons will appear on the final flash card deck. Once you are satisfied with your flashcard deck, click the pink “save” button. If you followed the directions posted here, you should end up with a deck identical to the one at the top of this blog post. For help configuring your deck, or assistance in implementing flashcards in your classes or study groups, please contact CON IT for additional assistance.

 

 

An Introduction to Using H5P

In this post, I will show you how to create an accordion list, one of the many tools on H5P. Below is an example I created of an accordion to review physiology. In this example, the student is presented with a question  to consider, and then the student can double check their answer by clicking on the accordion to reveal more information. One of the benefits of an accordion list is that it can organize and present broad answers with a lot of information. Accordion lists can be embedded into Carmen to condense large chunks of information and can be given to students as an assignment to complete or as a study guide. Accordion lists are especially useful in organizing long blocks of text into digestible pieces of information, as in complicated assignment instructions or longer discussion postings. Please try out the interactive accordion below:

The creation of an accordion list is quite simple. Follow this link  to get to H5P’s content creation page (you will also need to create a free account). Once there, click on the bar in the center of the page labeled “select content type,” and “accordion” will be the first choice. After selecting “accordion” and clicking the blue “use” button, you will be presented with a blank template. In the image below I have given the list the title “Physiology Review.” The current template has one blank form. To create a second blank form, you will need to hit the blue “add panel” button (circled in red).

The following images shows how I filled out the forms to create the interactive example at the top of the page (click on the image for a larger view):

Following these steps will create an accordion list identical to the one you see at the top of this blog post. All that’s left is to finalize the list at the bottom of the page:

 

If you want to add more content, you can continue to add more panels by clicking the blue “add panel” button. If you want to edit the display buttons on your accordion list, you can do so with the check boxes. If you are finished and want to see the completed list, click the pink “save” button.

Saving will take you to a finalized version of your accordion list. If you want to make edits to your list, you can do so by clicking the “edit” button. If you want to download a copy of your list or get the embed code, you can do so by clicking the respective buttons. If you don’t want the option to have download or embed buttons, you can remove them by deselecting the check boxes on the previous screen. For assistance using the H5P accordion list in your classroom, please contact the CON IT Department for support.

Flash Friday – Microsoft Sway

Microsoft Sway is a program for creation of online presentations using a combination of text, images, audio, and video. Sway is similar to PowerPoint, but the presentations are easy to create and present on the web. OSU students and faculty have free access to Sway through Office 365, so it is an excellent choice for students to share their course work in an online format. John Pryba covered the basic information you need to get started with Sway. View the recording here.