AT&T Fellows Final Report: Joyce Mac Kinnon, EdD

AT&T Fellows Final Reports

February 2005

Name	Joyce Mac Kinnon, EdD
Title	Professor and Associate Dean
Department	School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Campus	IUPUI
Project Title	Certificate in Health Sciences Patient Centered Outcomes
Project Goal	Create an online four-course certificate
Type of Technology Used in the Project	Oncourse, audio feed, web links, voice-overs, discussion forums, chat rooms, flash techniques

Executive Summary of Results

Using funding and technology supplied by the SBC Fellows program and the IUPUI JumpStart program, our school created a four-course 12 credit hour online certificate. The certificate is designed to provide credentialed health care professionals with information about current trends and issues in health care to include the growing use of technology, use of evidence to inform practice decisions, and the use of outcome measures focused on the individual patient/client. The certificate received final IU Board of Trustee approval in December 2004.

Need for the Project

Briefly explain why you believed there was a need for your project and what teaching approach was used to address this need.

This certificate was part of a broader initiative in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) to review advanced degree offerings with the advent of a new school structure. All courses in the certificate may be used as part of two master’s degrees offered through the SHRS. The master’s degree programs target working health care professionals and, therefore, most of the courses were offered in the evening. Rather than continue to ask students to take evening courses, or to lose a pool of prospective applicants who were unable or unwilling to travel to campus, the decision was made to convert several courses to a distance format and package them in a certificate. Therefore, the certificate can either stand alone or can be used for degree completion requirements. As a stand alone, it provides working heath care professionals with information directly relevant to their practice.

Use of Technology

Briefly explain how your project used instructional technology in a new or different way.

To create the courses in the certificate, the decision was made to use the Oncourse platform. Three of the four faculty members whose courses are included in the certificate participated in JumpStart programs offered on the IUPUI campus. Faculty members have made use of web links, voiceovers, discussion forums, and flash techniques.

Instructional Design Plan

Describe how the use of technology used supported your teaching approach:

What student learning outcomes were expected?
How did your teaching plan encourage active learning, provide feedback, address respective learning styles, and build collaboration?
What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.)
Would your project be easily understood and executed by other faculty?

Student learning outcomes are course specific and based on course objectives. The four courses that are part of the certificate and the faculty member responsible are:

Evidence Based Critical Inquiry in the Health Sciences (Mac Kinnon)
Trends and Issues in Health Sciences (Gable)
Patient Centered Outcomes Management (Oldridge)
Seminar in Health Informatics Applications (Hook)

Global certificate objectives are that certificate graduates:

Be able to discuss current trends and issues affecting health care delivery.
Understand the theoretical framework of evidence based medicine (EBM) and be able to use EBM to make informed clinical decisions.
Have a solid overview of the field of health informatics so as to be able to use technology to impact health care.
Become familiar with assessment methodology and outcomes so as to be able to make informed clinical decisions.

Methods used to encourage active learning, provide feedback, address respective learning styles and build collaboration included assignments that used information provided through the courses but permitted students to choose topics of interest to them. Feedback was provided electronically by faculty and by other students. Faculty members were available for consultation outside of the electronic format for those students who initially had difficulty with an electronic learning environment. Collaboration occurred through discussion forums and the use of chat rooms.

Through the JumpStart programs, we were able to use the skills of the staff in the IUPUI Center for Teaching and Learning to align course objectives with technology. SBC Fellow funds allowed us to hire a technical support person to assist with transferring information into the Oncourse platform.

Our project would be easily understood by faculty. We found that it took us longer to implement what we had first projected, and that some faculty were hesitant to explore the ways in which technology could be used to impact student learning.

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Clearly define how your project improved student learning - include specific examples of how your project:

Fostered depth of learning
Supported efforts to improve retention
Fostered the learning of large numbers of students
Has broader applications that will affect learning K-12 or community environments?

Since the certificate just received formal IU approval in December 2004, we have not yet enrolled a student.

Assessment Plan

Briefly explain the effectiveness of your assessment plan:

What measure of assessment was used?
How did your approach obtain measures of performance?
Did you feel your measurement was accurate and effective?

The first course in the certificate went online in fall 2004. Student feedback was very positive, especially with regard to the use of technology in the course. Feedback was solicited through end-of-course evaluation forms.

Plan for Colleague Development

Describe your role and activities as a mentor:

What mentoring activities were implemented to assist colleagues?
How did you help to develop colleague's instructional technology skills?
How do you think your contributions to the Knowledge Base will help colleagues planning similar projects?
Is your project approach potentially applicable to other contexts or disciplines?
What tips would you offer?

Since my course was the first course in the certificate to be placed online, I have served as a mentor to the other three faculty members whose courses are a part of the certificate. The mentoring was not formalized, but was more in the nature of being available to discuss educational pedagogy and the use of technology and of encouraging other faculty to persevere in their efforts. Other programs, departments, and schools could certainly replicate a similar certificate project.

The tip I would offer is to apply for JumpStart funding. The folks in the Center for Teaching and Learning are excellent and very willing to share their expertise. Also, the folks associated with the SBC Fellows program are great to work with as well.

Final Comments on Project Results

Do you think you met the goals of your project?
What, if anything,would you do differently?
Did you have any unexpected outcomes? (positive or negative)
Would you recommend this teaching approach to colleagues?
What other comments or suggestions would you offer to complete this report?

We met our goal of creating an online certificate. One of the faculty members involved in the project did not participate in JumpStart. In retrospect, I would have been more insistent that he do so since he is having more difficulty in placing his course online compared with the three of us who went through JumpStart. The unexpected outcome was the length of time it took to get the certificate completed. It took longer than I thought it would. I would recommend consideration of online certificates to colleagues.

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