Instructional Innovations

CON Faculty, Staff, and Students attend 2016 OLC Innovate conference

Judy Donegan, Phil Newman, Sarah-Jane Baserman, Lizzie Fitzgerald, and Joni Tornwall attended the 2016 OLC Innovate conference in New Orleans April 20-22.

Presentations

Bridging the Classroom-Workplace Gap: Leveraging Student Ingenuity to Create Authentic Learning Experiences

  • Judy Donegan
  • Phil Newman
  • Sarah-Jane Baserman
  • Joni Tornwall

Supportive Peer Feedback in the Digital Environment: Peer Review Design for Courses and the Workplace

  • Lizzie Fitzgerald
  • Joni Tornwall

Want to know more?  Watch for upcoming articles about sessions we attended, or contact us with your questions.

Flash Friday: Transform your Syllabus with Piktochart

November 20, 2015

Create a spring syllabus that students might actually read with interest!

Phil Newman, grad-entry student and learning tech artisan, presented a virtual workshop on Piktochart, a user-friendly, web-based infographics-creation program that will allow you to turn your syllabus (or any text-heavy document) into a visually engaging piece of information that will focus the reader’s attention on key points.  Continue reading Flash Friday: Transform your Syllabus with Piktochart →

Fairness of Items (FIT) tool for multiple choice exams

Pearls of wisdom from the STTI 43rd Biennial Convention

My series of posts on the recent STTI Biennial continues with a summary of Nikole Hicks’ presentation titled,

“Are Your Multiple-Choice Tests “FIT”?  Using the Fairness of Items Tool (FIT as a Component of the Test Development Process”

In short, Nikole did an exhaustive review of the literature to learn about best practices in test item writing with a focus on nursing education.  She distilled the guidelines into 38 criteria to determine whether a single multiple choice test question is fair and unbiased.  She rigorously tested her FIT tool with nursing faculty and found it to be valid and reliable.  Read the full description of her study background, methodology, results and conclusions on the STTI conference web site.

Her list of 38 criteria can be used to evaluate a single multiple-choice test question, or they can be used to guide test question writing.  They are divided into four categories:

  • evaluate the stem
  • evaluate the options
  • linguistic/structural bias
  • cultural bias

The criteria include recommendations regarding how many distracters to include, words and phrases to avoid, and page formatting, among many other things.  She recommends that nurse educators use the FIT tool to write original questions and revise publisher test bank questions to improve student success and better prepare students for licensure exams.

I found Nikole’s presentation to be very interesting, and the tool has the potential to be very useful in ensuring fairness of multiple choice exams.  Many thanks to Nikole for doing the work of combing through the extensive body of literature to condense item-writing best practices into a practical set of guidelines we can really use.   I have permission from Nikole to share the tool with OSU College of Nursing faculty, and I plan to offer a Flash Friday session on the tool in the spring semester.

The other two learning domains

Pearls of wisdom from the STTI 43rd Biennial Convention

What comes to mind when you hear the words “Bloom’s Taxonomy”? You probably think of the typical pyramid illustrating the stages of learning in the cognitive domain.  The most basic level of learning, according to Bloom, is Remembering. As learning deepens and broadens, the student works toward the highest level: Creating. What you may not realize or remember is that there are two other learning domains with their own progressive stages.

New Blooms Pyramid

In the nursing discipline, we sometimes refer to “knowledge, skills, and attitudes,” or KSAs, which align fairly closely with Bloom’s three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. (See Donald Clark’s website for more information and a plain-English explanation.) In nursing education, we tend to focus heavily on the cognitive and psychomotor domains of learning because that is (or seems to us to be) the nature of our discipline. I was reminded in a session at the STTI 43rd Biennial conference that we need to give the affective domain the attention it deserves and students need.

KSAs Bloom’s
Domains		 Realm
Knowledge Cognitive Intellectual
What do you know?
Skills Psychomotor Physical
What can you do?
Attitudes Affective Emotional
How do you feel?

Why does the affective domain matter to nursing?  Because when we use phrases like “quality and safety” or “cultural competence,” we are really referring to values that change behavior and affect nursing decisions on a daily basis.  That leads to more questions for the educator:  how do we assess students in the affective domain?  For example, how do we know when a nurse is exhibiting behavior that provides evidence that they have achieved the level of cultural competence expected of them in the workplace?

When we write objectives for any learning domain, we look for measurable, observable signs to show stakeholders the objectives have been met.  These signs will be products or performances we (as educators) and our stakeholders (administrators, accreditors, students and classmates) can perceive with one or more of our five senses to confirm that a learner has achieved a certain specific benchmark.

For example, if the instructional objective is for the learner to administer IM medication safely, it is fairly easy for us to identify the cognitive component of that objective (mental knowledge of medication and technique) and the psychomotor component of the objective (physical demonstration of procedure), but what is the affective part of the objective?  It’s an attitude of quality and safety.

What metric do we use to measure that attitude?  That is the piece that makes the affective domain so difficult.  It’s one thing to know the standards by which quality is measured and the procedures necessary to ensure patient safety related to an IM injection; it’s quite another to internalize that knowledge so that it transforms a nurse’s attitude toward medication administration and the whole patient.

Verbs such as appreciate and value express the affective domain, but they are not technically measurable. However, it is possible to describe a learner’s behavior when they appreciate cultural differences and value patient safety.  They may demonstrate sensitivity to diversity through respectful communication or prioritize elements of nursing care according to changing patient status and safety principles.

Writing objectives in the affective domain is a difficult concept to grasp fully.  See Donald Clark’s page on the affective domain to get a solid start on making sure you have measurable objectives in all three domains for your class.

Clark, D.R. (2015). Bloom’s taxonomy: The affective domain. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/Bloom/affective_domain.html

Clark, D.R. (2015). Learning: Knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/learning/ska.html

Sigma Theta Tau grant funding for nursing education research

Pearls of wisdom from the STTI 43rd Biennial Convention

Promoting nursing research and funding new nursing researchers through grants is an important mission for STTI. Are you interested in studying how your instructional innovations are impacting your students? Consider these grants from this prominent honor society in nursing:

STTI offers many other grant opportunities. If you would like to explore them, review their grants web page for details. Application deadlines occur throughout the year, and requirements vary. I would be happy to explore the funding opportunities with you to find out which one is a good fit for the project you have in mind.

Don’t wait until end-of-semester; survey your students now!

 Add a description

Mid-semester is a great time to check in with students to gauge their perceptions of what is working in our courses and what isn’t. Whether you teach face-to-face or online, a midterm survey in Carmen is a good way to find out if your students are struggling with any of the course content.

Margie Neidecker has an excellent midterm survey for her MACPR online program, and she has graciously agreed to share it her CON colleagues. If you are interested in adding a midterm survey to your Carmen course, just let us know. The results of the survey will be available in Carmen only to you and any other person who has the role of instructor in your course.

To get a midterm survey in your course:

  1. Email CON-InformationTechnology@osu.edu.
  2. Tell us which course(s) to which you want the survey added. Include the course name and class number as it appears in Carmen.
  3. Tell us what date the survey should open and what date it should close.
  4. Tell us if you want any questions added, edited, or deleted from the survey.

We will:

  1. Put a midterm survey in your Carmen course.
  2. Set it to open and close for students on the dates you specify.
  3. Post an announcement on your course home page asking the students to complete the survey.

Take advantage of this simple strategy and instructional best practice, and aim toward better end-of-term evaluations!

The questions on the survey template are below. You are welcome to edit the survey to fit your own needs after it is imported into your course.

Question 1

For each of the following statements, please select the answer that best corresponds to your opinion about the course.

(Students will respond to the following questions on a scale of Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.)

1

   The course materials are well organized and easy to navigate.

2

   The lectures are presented in a clear and effective manner.

3

   The readings complement the topic for that module and help me understand lecture material.

4

   I am learning what I expected to learn from this class.

5

   I am getting the feedback and/or support I need to be successful in this course.

6

   I find the class very difficult.

7

   I would recommend this class to someone else.

Question 2

Approximately how many hours per week do you spend on this class?

A) 1-3 hours
B) 4-6 hours
C) 7-9 hours
D) 10-12 hours
E) More than 12 hours

Question 3

Approximately how much of the reading that has been assigned so far have you completed?

A) 100%
B) 90%
C) 75%
D) 50%
E) Less than 50%

Question 4

What do you like or find most useful about this course? What is the best thing about it for you?

Question 5

How could this course be improved?

Question 6

What concerns or questions do you have related to this course that you have not already expressed? Please provide any additional comments you would like to make here.

Our first Flash Friday!

In our first Flash Friday webinar, we covered five simple productivity tools and strategies to streamline your workflow and perhaps even make your everyday life a little easier.

View a recording of the 30-minute session in CarmenConnect, and download the handout.

MobileYou Columbus – An App for All

How we came up with the idea

As grad entry students, we are required to take a community health course beginning in the summer of our second year in the program.  The class content is meant to cover the basics of community health nursing including public health, poverty and vulnerable populations, epidemiology and more nursing considerations for community care.  The content itself wasn’t particularly new or foreign to our class, but we were tasked with an open-ended, inquiry-based project that encouraged introspection and creativity…little did we know where such flexibility would take us.

Originally our team (Sarah-Jane Baserman772976de3c50d21babede5ba8e294cfd, Stephanie Bunker, Megan Miller-Lloyd, Hayley Townsend, and me) began the project with the intention of studying disease transmission through indirect contact with technology devices, but realized along the way that health management through mobile technology (or mHealth) was a new and exciting field of healthcare delivery that, as of yet, had not been extended to vulnerable populations.  We had to ask, though, is there even an arena to extend mHealth delivery to lower-income and vulnerable populations?  As it turns out, through evidence-based inquiry, not only is there an arena, but there is also a glaring need.  We found through our research that the use of smartphones is not only consistent throughout all socioeconomic statuses, but that lower-income individuals are more dependent on smartphones for internet access than others.

At this point, we thought, how can we demonstrate the possibilities for mHealth dissemination for vulnerable populations as part of our project?  It would be easy enough to put together a presentation explaining the need, but what would mHealth for the underprivileged look like?  Collaboratively we decided that a free, confidential mobile application detailing available services offered throughout the city could begin to fulfill this, as yet, unaddressed need.

How we generated it

Creating an app seems a simple-enough idea, but how could we – without technical expertise or experience – start to put together an app in just the few weeks allowed by the project?  Fortunately, asking the question with a realistic intention to follow through was just what we needed to begin.  After doing some very simple research on available options for constructing an app (and there are plenty out there!) we came across Buildfire.com – an app-building website that has pre-constructed templates with navigational tools.  The website was free to use, so we could create, dismantle, and refine as much as we wanted until the app took a form we were satisfied with.

Using resources gathered from our community health clinical experiences, we incorporated multiple menus that included food options (food pantries, free meals), healthcare options (free clinics, mental health resources etc.), shelters, clothing options, and much more.  The tools included in the app let users find resources either through a list or on a map, access the corresponding websites, email or call the resources directly, and even navigate to these destinations using Google Maps technology.  Once we saw the product we had created, using only our curiosities, our stubbornness to see the app through to fruition, and the resources we had gathered from our time in clinicals, we recognized that this could be much more than just a class project.  At this point, and based on the reception we had received from our instructor (Judy Donegan), our classmates, and the College of Nursing, we decided to publish the app.

Sample screenshot

Where we plan to go with it

We named our app MobileYou, and we see it as, hopefully, a beginning to something great that can extend to public health projects and communities throughout the country.  Recently we were featured on a local news broadcast which greatly improved our visibility within the Columbus community, and almost instantly we were contacted by multiple agencies in the city who wanted to know how they could appear on the app, or how we might work with them moving forward.

Our plan is to network with as many agencies and services as we can within the city to make the app as robust as possible.  Once there, we plan on conducting field testing in Columbus to determine the efficacy of the app and how it can be better refined for the ease of users.  If use of the app shows the promising results we anticipate, we plan on communicating with public health agencies and government organizations in other cities and states to broaden the reach of MobileYou and provide ease of access to resources for other users across Ohio and the country.

MobileYou is available for both Apple and Android platforms and can be downloaded directly from our website at:

http://www.mobileyoucolumbus.com/mobileyou-app-download.html

Facebook

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SoftChalk Resources to Explore

About a month ago, I proposed reasons you might want to look at SoftChalk Cloud with a group of campus partners in my blog post titled “Why you should take a (second) look at SoftChalk now.”

Today, I am sharing a few SoftChalk resources with my colleagues in the College of Dentistry.  Explore these sites to see if SoftChalk might be of interest to you, and let me know how I can be helpful if you want to get started!

SoftChalk web site

SoftChalk Cloud

Example of a Drag-and-Drop activity in SoftChalk (not Cloud; note the URL).

FAQs for SoftChalk

SoftChalk Showcase (great place to go to see what’s possible in SoftChalk; original files for some of these lessons can be downloaded and edited for your own use!)

SoftChalk Guides (includes that all-important student user guide to which you can refer your students)

eBook Builder

 

 

 

Upcoming events in the College of Nursing

Strategies for Digital Communication in Challenging Student Encounters
When: Monday, December 15, 1-2 p.m.
Where: Room 168
Who: Instructors of academic courses in the College of Nursing.  Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, this session will not be recorded or available virtually.
Registration is limited: https://survey.con.ohio-state.edu/Checkbox/Strategies-for-Digital-Communication-in-Challenging-Student-Encounters.aspx

No matter whether you teach online or face to face, situations arise for every instructor in which student behavior presents a communication challenge.  If you use email, discussion boards, or any other text-based digital format to communicate with students, there are approaches to ensure your words are consistently clear, positive, and supportive, even in response to student behaviors that may seem less than favorable.

In this presentation and round-table discussion, join your CON peers for a few pearls of wisdom that come from the teaching trenches.  Learn seven strategies for managing digital exchanges in challenging student encounters.  You’ll leave the workshop with templates for language you can use in digital communications with students.

Final Grades Submission work session
When: Wednesday, December 17, 2-4 p.m.
Where: Room 198 (Note the change in room number! We will be in 198.)
Who: Anyone who wants one-on-one assistance with submission of final course grades, either through Carmen gradebook or directly in Faculty Center
No registration necessary; come and go as convenient for you!

Drop in to Room 198 any time between 2-4 p.m. to get one-on-one assistance with final grade submission.  This is an open forum for questions, demos, and assistance with Carmen Gradebook, preparing final grades, transferring them to Faculty Center (the Registrar) working with grades in Faculty Center, and making sure your grades are, in fact, posted in SIS and go to the Registrar.  Bring your laptop or use one of ours.  Nathanael, John Pryba, and Joni will be available to answer your questions and walk you through the grade submission process or prepare you to submit grades when you are ready.

Questions?  Contact Joni Tornwall at CON-InformationTechnology@osu.edu.