1. Entrant Name(s) (last name/first name): Ling, Catherine 2. Contact Info: Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award Course/Project Submission Form 3. Affiliated Institution(s): Daniel K Inouye Graduate School of Nursing Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Disclaimer: The views expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and do not reflect the views or official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science, Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. 4. Course or Project Name: Population Health for Graduate Nursing Students 5. Course or Project Award Category (select one): Traditional Higher Education (including web-enhanced courses) X Fully Online/Hybrid Courses K-12 (primary and secondary education) Project Sites & Alternative Uses of Sakai/Apereo OAE
6. Brief Summary or Elevator Speech The Population Health course for the Doctorate of Nursing Practice students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences uses Sakai to provide a fully online class focused on student engagement and application on the content. This course emphases provision of a solid understanding of key principles and engages students in the application of those principles through debate, creative scenarios, and small group work using almost every facet of Sakai. 7. Description of Course or Project The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) is the nation's Federal Health Sciences university. The Population Health course is USUHS Graduate School of Nursing s (GSN) first fully online course and enrolls approximately 60 students annually. This 15 week course covers epidemiology basics, key population health concepts and terminology, theories and models for population health interventions and evaluations, and disaster planning. It incorporates video lectures, readings, discussion board activities, and other written assignments. The purpose of the course is to build competency in the area of population health for Advanced Practice Nurses working in the Federal Healthcare System. The students are all in the military and pursuing their Doctorate of Nursing Practice degrees as a Nurse Anesthetist or Nurse Practitioner. These students need to emerge from the course with an understanding of key principles and core components and an ability to synthesize and apply this material in their various practice settings. One of the factors impacting the design of this course is that students are in clinical rotations across the United States. They are in different time zones and on different schedules. Therefore, the flexibility and the variety of Sakai learning platform and site tools implemented is critical to support learning and synthesis. Almost every tool available on the Sakai site is used in the delivery of this course content. The Announcements, calendar and syllabus tools are used for housekeeping and administration overviews. Lesson builder, Resources, Podcasts, Web Content (video lecture links), eresources and Newsfeed are used to deliver content. The Discussion Boards, chat, and Wiki are used for communication with Clog and Sign up tools added for the latest iteration of the course. Assignments and evaluations are conducted by using the Discussion Board, Wiki, and Tests and quizzes tools with the final results being housed in Gradebook. The variety of tools available allow for delivery of content in a variety of formats that is cohesive with learning activities and evaluations. A zombie pandemic and fictional division of the Department of Defense provide virtual laboratories within the Sakai tools for acquisition and application of knowledge. The learning principles used to design this course incorporated Bloom s learning process (moving from concrete to abstract and complex) with a focus on learner engagement, creative content, and applicability. Not all of the students have been exposed to population health principles so there is a need to provide foundational knowledge along side challenging background while making the material and assignments engaging and relevant for a very busy adult learner.
The success of this course is due to the design partnership with the Education & Technology Innovation Support Office professionals at USU. Their contributions to design and delivery can not be overstated. They provided thoughtful discussions and prompts throughout the crosswalk of teaching, learning, and evaluation strategies. This group has provided the zombie animations critical to the model and theories module. Faculty partners have been instrumental in beta testing course content delivery, content updating and redesign as well as course support. 8. Self-Assessment TWSIA Course/Project Self-Assessment Criterion #1: Student Engagement and Community Building A. Rating Not applicable Not evident Somewhat effective Effective X Excellent B. Evidence to Support Your Rating (250-word maximum) Students have several opportunities to engage with each other and faculty to build a virtual community. The faculty encourage this dialogue through assignment feedback (group and individual), informal discussion prompts and responses on the Sakai Discussion Boards, and through the Food for Thought materials in Module Resource Tool. Video captured through ECHO software is linked into Sakai via the Web Content tool. Scholarly readings are available from the Library via the eresources Sakai link. Students respond to each other via discussion board prompts, debates and plan postings. 100% of the students initiate and respond to their peers in the graded Discussion Boards. They are encourage to seek resources relevant to their practice areas and be creative and thoughtful in their responses. This is most evident in their plans to address a zombie pandemic where they have used a variety of creative mechanisms (AWACS aircraft and phasers) and resources (Max Brooks Zombie Survival Guide). Another way community is encouraged is through small group work. The students are organized into small groups on Sakai and are assigned a country. All of these online Sakai groups form the Humanitarian Health International Teams
(HHIT), a new and fictitious division in the Department of Defense. They work in these country groups using the Wiki, discussion boards and assignments tools to create responses to disasters and humanitarian aid crises. C. Additional Supporting Evidence Screen Shot HHIT Overview
Screenshot of HHIT Wiki TWSIA Course/Project Self-Assessment Criterion #2: Communication A. Rating Not applicable Not evident Somewhat effective Effective X Excellent B. Evidence to Support Your Rating (250-word maximum) Consistent and clear communication are foundational for this Sakai based course. Netiquette expectations are articulated in the syllabus, organizational meeting, course overview video and PowerPoint all of which are housed in the Resources Tool. Doctoral level communication is a foundational expectation communicated to students through the syllabus and assignment instructions. Faculty availability and email response time are explicitly addressed in the orientation video with response timing being 24 hours for week days and next business day for weekends. Assignments are graded and returned within a week of submission. This tight timeline for feedback is critical as the content builds iteratively.
Additionally, the faculty hold twice weekly virtual office hours to allow individual or small groups of students time for Sakai linked email, chat, video or telephone conferences. Sakai wiki pages allow students to dialogue and collaboratively build assignments. Sakai Discussion Board general query and non-graded food for thought threads encourage faculty and student dialogue and for student lead discussion of issues. Graded Sakai Discussion Board student responses expectations are clarified in the Discussion Board Instructions. Structured weekly Sakai Announcements clarify expectations of content coverage, assignment due dates and general housekeeping notes/reminders. Finally, all due dates, content start and stop dates, and office hours are located on the Sakai calendar and on the Content map in Resources. C. Additional Supporting Evidence Sample Sakai Calendar with Content mapped
Sample weekly announcement sent via Sakai Announcements. Each weekly announcement followed the same format: Content, Activities and Housekeeping.
TWSIA Course/Project Self-Assessment Criterion #3: Learning Materials and Strategies A. Rating Not applicable Not evident Somewhat effective Effective x Excellent B. Evidence to Support Your Rating (250-word maximum) A variety of learning materials, Sakai tools and strategies are used with a consistent organization of each module. Each module begins with an overview video recording and static PowerPoint. Weekly learning, reading expectations with assignments that reflect the content. The teaching components of the modules can consist of recorded lecture viewed through Sakai linked ECHO software, videos and web sites from outside sources. Reading lists for each module are provided and required readings are accessible through Sakai and the ereserve. Each module also has a Food for Thought section where materials (social media and peer reviewed articles, web pages, written narratives, video and audio links) can be placed to encourage students to dig beyond the basics. All of these learning materials are in Resources and Lessons. Newsfeed and Podcasts tools highlight emerging topics. Student navigation is outlined in several Sakai tools: content map, calendar, announcements, instructions, videos and resources. Learning materials are clarified by email, Sakai chat, telephone or video conferencing. Additionally, general and modular query threads on the Sakai discussion board house group dialogues. Module 2 is an example of layered learning materials through multiple Sakai tools. Students are given readings, recorded lectures, a fictitious military response plan and health agency graphic novel to learn population health theories and models. A critical teaching element is a set of animations depicting the different models through a zombie pandemic narrative. The students synthesize their learning by creating a model supported plan to address one of three Zombie pandemic scenarios.
C. Additional Supporting Evidence Screenshot of the Zombie animation
Screenshot of Module Contents
TWSIA Course/Project Self-Assessment Criterion #4: Learning Outcomes and Assessment A. Rating Not applicable Not evident Somewhat effective Effective X Excellent B. Evidence to Support Your Rating (250-word maximum) The learning outcomes sequentially build knowledge culminating in content synthesis with application. Students are expected to move along Bloom s taxonomy from concrete knowledge acquisition to synthesis and critique. Course objectives are stated in the syllabus with assignments and evaluation expectations housed in module specific instructions and rubrics found in Lessons and Resources tools. Instructions have a consistent format outlining Purpose (linking content to assignment), Preparation (background material), Activity (overview of specific assignment tasks) and Evaluation (grading criteria). Assignments were submitted via Sakai Discussion Board, Wiki, or Assignments tool. Sakai Discussion Boards and Wiki content are visible and reviewed by the entire class with prompt faculty feedback. Assignments include voice over PowerPoint, briefing papers, debates, wiki information pages and peer evaluation. The Glossary exercise is an example of concrete knowledge acquisition evaluation. In this assignment, students were required to define two out of 10 key concepts with examples pulled from their readings. These glossary entries are posted on a concept specified Sakai wiki page. Moving toward higher level learning with analysis, the students use foundational concepts to debate one of three population health issues on the Sakai Discussion Boards. By the end of the semester, synthesis is seen through small group disaster responses to specific crisis scenarios such as an earthquake and cholera outbreak. The students use Sakai Wiki pages to build responses and post the finished products on their country specific Sakai Discussion Board thread.
C. Additional Supporting Evidence Several students who had no previous background in public or population health have expressed an understanding and valuing of the utility of the tools gained for their clinical practice toolkits. Without the continual practical engagement via the various Sakai tools and platform, students may view material outside of their clinical norms as academic. Screenshot of Sakai Assignments
Screen shot of a Module Assignment Instruction Sheet
TWSIA Course/Project Self-Assessment Criterion #5: Learner Support A. Rating Not applicable Not evident Somewhat effective Effective X Excellent B. Evidence to Support Your Rating (250-word maximum) This course is offered when the students have been in their degree program for a year. Sakai has been a part of each of their classes prior to taking this fully online course, so they are experienced users of the learning platform. The syllabus lists technology requirements and technology support. Additionally, the students have an orientation to Sakai and how to use its tools during their first week in their program. For this course, the faculty meet with the students during a live face-to-face session prior to the start of class to discuss and demonstrate the utility of the different Sakai tools that will be a part of the coursework. Additionally, for tools with which the students may not be as familiar, like the Sakai wiki page, additional tutorials were provided in resources. Faculty are available throughout the course via virtual office hours to assist with and support utilization of the Sakai tools. C. Additional Supporting Evidence Screenshot from the syllabus:
Screenshot of the Sakai Resources Page