Learning from cases in a large, web-blended class-- Nursing 527

Grant:

Investigating Student Learning Grant (ISL)

Academic Year:

2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)

Funding Requested:

$4,000.00

Project Dates:

Fri, 05/01/2015 - Tue, 05/31/2016

Applicant(s):

salesann

Overview of the Project:

Abstract: The transformation of graduate nursing education at the University of Michigan requires adaptive, innovative, evidence based educational strategies to meet the changing demands of today's advanced practice registered nursing student. For this reason the University of Michigan School of Nursing has been collaborating with the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. Web blended courses combined with monthly face to face meetings have been used for many years with class sizes of 20-25 students. Due to recent revision of the master's education curriculum, class sizes have recently increased to accommodate over 100 students, as is the case in the new N527 "Optimal Models and Systems for Health Care Delivery" course, creating challenges for a student centered approach. This new course uses adult/active learning educational methods combined with case based group activities and simulation exercises. The combination of a web-blended approach, large class size, and case-based learning is quite novel in graduate education in nursing and relatively unusual across the University of Michigan, providing a unique opportunity to capture important baseline information and reflection on the methods being used. This proposal seeks to identify what factors affect student engagement and the effect of student engagement on learning outcomes. Results of this study will guide programmatic development of future nursing courses and may be of interest in other disciplines in which students share characteristics with graduate nursing education: older students who work at least part time, and who have limited time to engage in learning activities.

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

We set out to answer these two research questions: 1. What factors affect student engagement in a new course offering in which many new approaches (for this student population) are being used? 2. How does student engagement affect learning outcomes?

Project Achievements:

Unfortunately, I transferred from the School of Nursing to the Medical School during the period of this project, so my ability to directly affect the teaching of this and other School of Nursing classes has been lessened. However, I have shared the findings with my colleagues in the School of Nursing, and in particular with the faculty member who now teaches this course. Some of the insights have been incorporated into how teams are formed, to try to support students who may struggle with team based work and group assignments, in an attempt to better support them. We found that the 105 students who completed the 14 week course engaged at a high level, despite the challenges of a large, web-blended course. In the analyses completed to date, we used the adjustment factors from the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME), measuring perceptions of how effectively students engaged with their assigned teams. CATME is a set of survey instruments, consisting of baseline assessments as well as assessments of team effectiveness completed by all students at three times during the 14 week course. We found that the CATME adjustment factors were skewed to the right, with a range of 0.07 to 1.05, and an interquartile range of 1.0 to 1.03. The mean was 1.002 with a standard deviation of 0.054. In multivariable analysis, we found that the only variable from the baseline survey that appeared to be significantly associated with the CATME adjustment factor was GPA from previous degree, which was positively associated with the CATME adjustment factor. There was a trend (p=0.12) for an association between preference for leadership rather than being a follower in a team and the CATME adjustment factor. Both of these may fit with high achieving, more leadership-oriented students being more effective team members.

Continuation:

I will complete planned analyses.

Dissemination:

I have discussed the findings informally with the group of colleagues who teach the three large, web-blended courses. I will explore the opportunity to present findings more formally to colleagues. I will also complete planned analyses and plan to submit a manuscript to a peer-reviewed publication.

Advice to your Colleagues:

The major barrier was my transfer to the Medical School.

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