Online Learning- A Joint Venture

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Online Learning- A Joint Venture

• Anthony Gamboa
• Harry S. Truman CollegeInformation Technology
  Coordinator
• Catherine Gierman-Riblon
• Triton College
• Associate Dean of Health Careers
• Kimberly Mau
• Kankakee Community College
• Director of Nursing

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The Current State of Nursing Education

• The Nursing Shortage
• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and
  Statistics published in the February 2004 Monthly
  Labor Review, more than one million new and
  replacement nurses will be needed by the year
  2012.
• Registered Nursing has been identified as the top
  occupation in terms of growth through the year
  2012.

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• According to November/December 2003 issue of
  Health Affairs, the number of people enrolled in
  nursing programs would have to increase at least
  40 annually to replace those expected to leave
  the workforce through retirement.
• According to the American Association of Colleges
  of Nursing 2004-2005 report, US nursing schools
  turned away 32,797 qualified applicants to
  nursing programs.

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Why cant we simply increase the number of
nursing students??
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Reasons for Turning Away Qualified Students

• Faculty Vacancies
• In July 2004, the national nurse faculty vacancy
  rate was 8.1, which translates to approximately
  2.9 faculty vacancies per school.
• Lack of classroom space
• Decreasing number of clinical sites
• Industry Salaries vs. Faculty Salaries-
• According to the 2003 National Salary Survey of
  Nurse Practitioners in Advance magazine, masters
  prepared nurses working in an emergency
  department was 80,000. In contrast, the new
  nursing faculty instructor makes an average of
  35,000- 40,000.

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The Benefits of Using Online Courses to Meet
Educational Demand

• Online/hybrid courses provide flexibility
• Time
• Place
• Life demands
• Online/hybrid courses decrease demand for
  classroom space.

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• Online/hybrid courses help prepare community
  college students for higher degree work which
  often incorporates online technology.
• Online/hybrid courses can increase the
  communication for students who otherwise might
  not speak up in class.

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• Online/hybrid courses encourage student
  responsibility and initiative
• Online/hybrid courses can increase collaboration
  between hospitals and schools
• The competition is doing it!

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The Origin of the Grant

• A quest to find solutions to the nursing and
  health professions shortages within the Northeast
  Region
• Non-competitive WIA Healthcare Program Innovation
  Grant, DCEO, coordinated and monitored by ICCB
• Three colleges with nursing programs and interest
  in addressing the shortages

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The Goal of The Grant

• Expand program capacity to produce more RN
  graduates and expand access for adult, working
  students including incumbent workers in
  healthcare facilities utilizing online/hybrid
  nursing courses.

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What the Grant Provided

• Faculty compensation, release and benefits
• Consultants if needed
• Meeting and training expenses
• Personnel costs for project manager and IT
• Capital/Non-capital equipment and software
• Materials and supplies for content development

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How The Process Evolved

• Truman College assumed the lead role and managed
  the technology of the project
• Triton College and Kankakee Community College
  were participating partners as well
• Each college had varying needs, abilities, and
  campus and community resources.
• Each college developed and negotiated their own
  budget

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How The Process Evolved

• Each college determined their own scope of work
  which was approved by ICCB.
• Each college enlisted two - four faculty members
  to participate in the project
• Planning meetings were held in Fall 2004 during
  which the faculty discussed their individual
  curriculum structures and interests, and
  determined which school would develop what
  content, as well as the module structure.

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How The Process Evolved

• The technology staff of the three colleges
  maintained communication to meet technology needs
  such format and determining a common labeling
  system for modules.
• Each school developed their content which was
  ultimately loaded to a shared X-drive server
  that Truman manages and all three schools can
  access.

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Technology- Understanding the Needs

• Faculty
• Delivering course content online.
• Reuse/Rebuild existing materials such animations,
  interactive games, videos and other medias (with
  consent of publishers/authors).
• Use the current content management system with
  another system that would handle video streaming.
• Existence of different CMS systems and their
  incompatibility.

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Technology- Understanding the Needs

• Students
• May lack the appropriate technology at home to
  view hybrid nursing courses content.
• May lack technological knowledge to navigate
  and/or view the courses content.
• Various online sites to remember.

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Available Resources

• Content Management Systems
• Truman College
• Blackboard
• Triton and Kankakee
• Web CT
• Both Content Management Systems used by faculty
  members to record grades, post course
  e-electronic material, discussion boards,
  electronic submissions, etc.

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Addressing the Needs

• Faculty
• Post digital videos on certain nursing topics.
• Create re-usable xml driven interactive games
• Research and organize a shared space wherein all
  faculty members only (from all campuses) could
  upload and download course prepared materials for
  different modules, (The X-Drive).
• Develop a database driven website as a portal
• Facilitate a workshop for faculty members

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• Students
• A main website developed to contain many
  resources in one place.
• Technical support available for hybrid nursing
  students over email.

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Technology Structure
HTML PAGE See media link
Streaming Mediafrom the student area
Student Space This area contains the media files
that faculty members will use for they hybrid
courses
Faculty SpaceRestricted Space This area
contains the shared resources by/for faculty
members from Triton, Truman, and Kankakee
Blackboard/Web CT This are is used currently for
- Gradebook- Online Discussions- Document
Postings- Announcements- Digital Submissions
Accepted File Formats for Sharing RTF, DOC, PDF,
PPP, FLV, SWF, GIF, JPEG, AVI, MPEG, WAV, MP3,
WMV.
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Solutions to a Central Repository

• The X-Drive
• All faculty members involved in the project to
  share their electronic materials online.
• Easy accessible without compromising other
  faculty members work.
• Web as well as windows accessibility.
• Search capabilities
• Space capacity.

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Solution to a Portal
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Solutions to a Central Repository
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Conclusion

• All systems (current and new) are able to
  coexists and provides an easy user interface.
• Selected students were prepared to take the class
  with good knowledge in technology.
• Faculty members were also prepared to handle new
  additional technological implementations.
• A portal for all faculty and students as gateway
  to other resources.
• A central repository for all faculty members only
  to share their course modules with other members.

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KCC Contributions

• Evaluation of opportunities for Online courses
  within the department
• Three faculty members involved in content
  creation in conjunction with the Director of
  Instructional Technology and Alternative Delivery
• Plans made for integration of online material
  into Practical Nursing program, Transition LPN-RN
  program, Registered Nurse Program.

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KCC Contributions

• Content Modules created
• Nursing Process
• End of Life Care
• Gerontology
• Psychiatric Nursing
• Cardiac Arrhythmias
• Pharmacology

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KCC Contributions

• Content Modules included
• Powerpoint presentations with printable slides
  and Powerpoint Producer created for each module.
• Discussion boards
• Quizzes and Examinations in Respondus
• Video clips of nursing assessments and patient
  care
• Games and activities

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KCC Contributions

• Created content modules were utilized in the
  Summer and Fall of 2005 at KCC in four RN
  courses, one LPN course and the Transition
  program. Use of the grant funding allowed these
  courses to become hybrid courses by the colleges
  definition, creating more flexibility for the
  student and meeting the demand to integrate more
  technology into the curriculum.

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KCC Contributions

• Equipment purchased by the grant included
• Laptops for the department, equipped with
  Powerpoint Producer and Respondus
• Adobe Acrobat and Macromedia software
• Digital camera
• Apple G5 for Video editing
• CD and DVDs for the creation of
• Wireless Access point and Router
• DVD produced with videos for purchase at LULU

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Truman Colleges Contribution

• Course development team established which
  consisted of
• Nursing faculty
• Instructional Technology designers
• Information Technology support
• Administrator

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Truman Colleges Contribution

• Needs for exploring similar programs
• A site visit to Broward Community College in
  Florida guided the course development team (400
  online nursing students )
• A site visit to Rio Salado in Arizona helped the
  faculty members get a better idea about their
  hybrid nursing program (nationally 300 students
  with 3 FT faculty, NLNAC accredited to run
  distance education program in IL, adjuncts from
  local clinicals)

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Truman Colleges Contribution

• Equipment needs were determined
• Purchased laptops, software, scanner, printer,
  video camera, still camera, and a projector using
  grant funds
• Purchased server space for all faculty to share
  their final materials
• Allocated an office space for team members to
  develop and test content for the hybrid course

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Truman Colleges Contribution

• Nursing faculty worked with instructional
  technology team to develop content
• Nursing faculty engaged in training
• Modules were created for nursing academics
• Complete online course created for NUR101
  Fundamentals of Nursing

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Truman Colleges Contribution

• Teaching scenarios videos were uploaded
• Fundamentals of Nursing was offered in the Fall
  2006 to 27 students. Five students with tuition,
  fees and uniforms covered by the Hospital partner

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Triton Colleges Contribution

• Course development team established which
  consisted of
• Nursing faculty
• Instructional designers
• Technology staff
• Arts Sciences faculty with online expertise as
  mentors
• Administrator

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Triton Colleges Contribution

• Content created
• Management for PNs
• Nursing decision making
• Critical thinking content
• Management for RNs
• Nursing trends
• Nursing academics
• Videos professionals in practice teaching
  scenarios

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Triton Colleges Contribution

• Equipment needs were determined
• Established a resource office with computers,
  software, scanner, video camera, still camera
  using grant funds
• Purchased faster server with greater capacity to
  handle increased content and use of streaming
  video as well as increased student and faculty
  demand for access

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Triton Colleges Contribution

• Nursing faculty engaged in training
• Nursing faculty worked with the design team and
  mentors to develop content
• Modules were created which contained PPT, online
  discussions, discussion board topics,
  reinforcement activities.
• Complete online course created for NUR190
  Preparation for the Practical Nursing Role

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Triton Colleges Contribution

• Practicing nurses were interviewed at their place
  of employment and video was dropped into the
  course.
• Teaching scenarios were also created and
  videotaped on related topics
• NUR190 was offered in the Summer 2005 to 29
  students with tuition and fees covered by the
  grant. Students participated in formative an
  summative evaluations of the course.

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Benefits and Challenges

• Over 200 students in three different colleges are
  experiencing a hybrid nursing course.
• Hospitals that participate can help share the
  burden of sustaining nursing programs.
• Faculty are inspired to create more courses.

• Retention issues related to online courses in
  general.
• Creation of online content requires additional
  time, technical support and financial support for
  faculty who are often already over-extended.

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Benefits and Challenges

• Can expand capacity beyond that of the
  traditional program model
• There was collaboration between three schools
  that otherwise would not have occurred.
• Aids students who have time constraints.

• Common vocabulary
• Facilitating communication
• Need to be flexible during development
• Some content may not be appropriate
• Does the school have enough space in their
  platform?

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Benefits and Challenges

• The design team concept fosters collaboration
  with faculty from other disciplines that
  otherwise might not have occurred

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QUESTIONS????