By morphing its Transition to Associate Degree Nursing program into a hybrid offering, Brevard Community College, in Cocoa, Fla., will graduate more associate degree nurses into Florida’s healthcare industry.
The new hybrid program takes respiratory therapists, paramedics and practical nurses, gets them onto the same track, and allows them to earn associate’s degrees in nursing through a combination of online learning and face-to-face lab and clinical experiences. The idea behind the change is to simplify life for working students, and in doing so, graduate more nurses into a healthcare industry starved for them.
Desperate for Nurses in Florida
“It’s projected that there will be 700,000 new nursing positions by 2014 in Florida alone,” says Linda Meidema, Academic Dean for Health Sciences. “A lot of our students are working professionals and it’s difficult for them to come to class four times per week. With the new hybrid program, they can study around their shifts at work and go online when it is convenient.”
Brevard’s nursing students enjoy a near 100 percent placement rate, according to Meidema. “We have as many as 600 applications to get into our nursing program for just 60 openings,” she says.
The hybrid offering will cut seat time by 66 percent, she adds, which means students will learn at their convenience, online, more than half the time.
When the new hybrid Transition to Nursing program debuts in June, she expects to enroll 12 full-time and 36 part-time students, who will earn degrees in one year and three years, respectively. This program, she maintains, represents a first for Brevard.
But, how, in such a hands-on profession, can students of nursing effectively learn in an online environment? Through performance-based curriculum, interactive learning objects, video lectures, visual demonstrations and engaging online lessons, according to Meidema. And of course, face-to-face labs and clinicals complement the cyber courses.
Merging Technology & Performance-based Learning
Three primary technologies will be used to pull off an interactive online learning experience, according to Brevard’s Director of Academic Technology Jayne Gorham – BCC Capture, Blackboard and WIDS.
BCC Capture allows Brevard to record media-rich lectures in real-time using Apreso software. The instructors’ remarks are synchronized with any visuals, video and audio presented during the lecture and are instantaneously available on the Web for 24/7 student review. This “lecture capture” will be among several online learning aids, she says. Not only will the lecture captures be infused into the online courses of the program, they can be downloaded to iPods or MP3 players for playback later – adding to learning flexibility and convenience. The Academic Technology department at Brevard, in partnership with the College’s digital television station WBCC-TV, will create high-level learning objects to illustrate a variety of medical situations using the Human Patient Simulator, a dummy that can simulate a disease or condition and respond accordingly to treatment.
Blackboard is the platform on which the new online courses will run. As part of the Transition to Nursing project, Brevard’s Blackboard learning environment will adopt a consistent look, feel and navigation for all online courses. That way, according to Gorham, students know immediately upon going online, that they are in the right place.
Finally, all courses for the program will be developed using Worldwide Instructional Design System (WIDS) curriculum design software – providing a sound performance-based structure that works seamlessly with Blackboard and Apreso. WIDS is a nonprofit organization offering curriculum design training, consulting and software for performance-based learning.
“Right now in Blackboard there is no guide for learning,” says WIDS Consultant Kim Vosicky. “Using WIDS, we will create learning plans to address each competency, providing learners with a roadmap of learning and assessment experiences. Each activity will hyperlink to the Apreso pieces, Web sites, handouts, learning objects, quizzes or case studies. This setup streamlines the navigation through the course for the student, helping them to focus and move along smoothly.” The result, come June, will be a highly interactive learning experience wrapped around a performance-based curriculum structure complete with competencies, performance standards, learning plans, learning activities and assessments.
Developing Performance-based Courses Collaboratively
“WIDS is the curriculum design tool that is guiding the course redesign,” says Gorham. “Our health sciences programs are already performance-based, but the redesign helps us improve that performance-based approach to areas that need it. The most compelling part of the project is that through WIDS, we’ve reached a level of collaboration among Health Sciences faculty that will produce an excellent program – a high-level, quality program because of input from the critical mass.”
Vosicky was called upon to lead that collaborative effort. She walked 10 nursing faculty and five industry experts through the process of identifying competencies for each course. “We wanted to be sure that the competencies were aligned with the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission standards,” says Meidema. Using WIDS, Vosicky is helping to develop the first two online courses for Brevard – Transition to Nursing and Advanced Medical–Surgical Nursing. Brevard nursing faculty, who have attended WIDS training, will design the others.
Variety in Learning
Ultimately nine courses will be delivered online and five will take the form of labs and clinicals. As part of the program, several types of learning activities will be offered as part of teaching the same competency, according to Vosicky. “Not everyone learns the same way, so we offer activities that teach the same concept in multiple ways. Learners enrolled in this program are already health professions, so some will come fairly comfortable in some areas and can choose to pick one activity or all of them to master a concept. It is their option,” she says.
Some assessments will be performed online, and others will be performed in the lab under the supervision of an instructor, according to Meidema. Students will report to a lab once a week to be assessed by the instructor.
As Cyber Learners See It
When students go online, they will enter a highly interactive learning environment, according to Vosicky, Meidema and Gorham. Not only will they often see and hear lectures via lecture capture, they will engage in a variety of learning objects. Learning objects are small capsules of information that explain concepts using flash animation. Often, learning objects are interactive and require learners to respond to questions after each lesson. One benefit of a learning object is that learners can easily back track and review content in order to better grasp the subject matter, according to Vosicky. Learners might also see online case studies and simulations, and use discussion threads to reflect on them or share information with instructors and other students.
A Model Program
It seems the hybrid Transition to Nursing program may serve as a pilot for others to come … “The College is looking to utilize WIDS for the platform for all courses over a period of time,” says Meidema. “This is our first full-blown foyer into online education. We wanted to get the experts involved. We want to do this with other programs,” she adds. “Once you have it done, and understand the progression and semantics, the next project is that much easier.”
For more information about WIDS, visit www.wids.org.