NURS 6331: Week 2: Addressing Learner Needs With Learning Objectives Essay

Week 2: Addressing Learner Needs With Learning Objectives

At a recent faculty training, Sandra, the School of Nursing’s Dean, over viewed a new curriculum policy that places an increased emphasis on the development and alignment of learning objectives. Sandra stated that during the assessment committee’s annual review, they noticed a few courses that failed to adequately measure student learning. The administration’s analysis also concluded that a handful of learning needs went unattended due to the misalignment of learning objectives. As Sandra spoke, she reiterated her confidence in her faculty and commended all for the thought and effort that each instructor places into his or her course. Justin, a relatively new instructor to the University, nodded his head in agreement. Justin had always felt the creation of learning objectives to be his weakness and was somewhat relieved to hear that he was not the only one who struggled with this particular skill.

Not unlike Justin in the scenario above, novice and experienced nurse educators alike often struggle with writing meaningful and measurable learning objectives. In addition, the need to closely align objectives to learning activities adds another layer of complexity. This week, you examine strategies for writing appropriate learning objectives. You will also be introduced to ASSURE, an instructional design model often used for developing courses that incorporate different kinds of media and technology.

Learning Objectives – NURS 6331: Week 2: Addressing Learner Needs With Learning Objectives Essay

Students will:

• Create learning activities to address specific learning needs
• Construct meaningful and measurable learning objectives
• Analyze the alignment of learning objectives to learning activities
• Design a draft of a lesson plan for the virtual lesson

Class Conference

This week you are encouraged to participate in a group conference call to review the course planner and the assignments in this course. Your instructor will post the date and time for the calls in the Announcements. You are strongly encouraged to participate in this call and bring your questions. If you are unable to attend this call, please contact your instructor as soon as possible to schedule another time to meet. This call will cover important information that willl help you succeed in this course.

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Bradshaw, M. J., & Hultquist, B. L.  (2017). Innovative teaching strategies in nursing and related health professions (7th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

• Chapter 2, “Culture and Diversity in the Classroom”This chapter presents a brief historical overview of diversity in the United States. Strategies and considerations for working with diverse learners are also included.
• Chapter 4, “Strategies for Innovation”Nurse educators can utilize innovative strategies such as art, literature, storytelling, humor, and technology to engage learners. This chapter reviews these strategies and also provides authentic examples of their use.Bristol, T. J., & Zerwekh, J. (2011). Essentials of e-learning for nurse educators. Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company.

• Chapter 10, “Learners’ Special Needs and Considerations” (pp. 181–194)Chapter 10 introduces considerations for creating universal designs for learning (UDL) that fit the needs of all learning styles and abilities.

Shank, P. (2005). Writing learning objectives that help you teach and students learn (Part 1). Online Classroom, 4–7. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

This article describes how educators can write effective learning objectives and it provides detailed steps and examples.

Overview of the ASSURE MODEL. (2014, September 9). Retrieved September 23, 2015 from https://idtassuremodel.wordpress.com/about/

This website provides a basic explanation of the ASSURE model of instructional design.

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2015 from http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy

ISU Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. A model of learning objectives based on a taxonomy for teaching, learning and assessing.

Writing Measurable Learning Objectives – TeachOnline. (2012, July 2). Retrieved January 21, 2015 from http://teachonline.asu.edu/2012/07/writing-measurable-learning-objectives/

A tool for writing objectives from the Arizona State University.

Document: Crafting Learning Objectives (PDF)

In previous Nursing courses, you should have been introduced to a specific two-part format for creating learning objectives. As mentioned in the media and content for those courses, you are to use this format for all learning objectives that you create in your MSN Nursing Education Specialization. Failure to use this format will result in point deductions for each of the Lesson Plans and activities that you create. Review this document carefully when creating your learning objectives.NURS 6331: Week 2: Addressing Learner Needs With Learning Objectives Essay

Document: Lesson Plan Job Aid (Word document)

This document briefly describes each section of your Lesson Plan. It is highly recommended that you review this document before you begin creating your first Lesson Plan in this week’s Assignment.

Document: Lesson Plan Template (Word document)

Nurse educators can create, adapt, and mold Lesson Plan Templates to fit the needs of their specific learners and learning environment. For example, this Lesson Plan Template was created specifically for the learning needs of this course. Throughout this course, you will use this Lesson Plan Template for each lesson that you create.

Document: Virtual Lesson Plan: An Example (PDF)

You can use this Lesson Plan example* to help guide the creation of your own virtual lesson. Dr. Tim Bristol, the nurse educator featured in this week’s media presentation, created this Lesson Plan.

* Note that this Lesson Plan exemplifies average to above-average work. If an Instructor were using the Creating a Video Presentation for a Virtual Lesson Rubric (located in the Course Information area), this Lesson Plan would earn points in the Exceeds Standards and Acceptable grade ranges. To submit your best work, pay careful attention to the guidelines in the Assignment Planner document, the in-course directions, and the expectations listed in the rubric.

Important Note: Please review the documents below to learn about the course timeline and assignment submission details.

Document: Assignment Planner (PDF)

Document: Grade Center Guide (PDF)

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Video presentation demonstration [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 7 minutes.

Online video presentations are created with diverse styles, themes, and purposes in mind. This media serves as an example for the media that you will create for your Assignment, “Creating a Video Presentation for a Virtual Lesson.” Note the basic nature of the video as well as the focus on content.

Discussion: Crafting Meaningful and Measurable Learning Objectives

Medical education uses a range of terms—aims, learning outcomes, learning objectives, competencies—to describe what learners should achieve as a result of educational interventions. This can be confusing, but it is often important that end points are clearly defined before the learning takes place. It is like planning a journey—if you don’t know where you intend to go before you start, you may end up somewhere you don’t want to be.

—McKimm, J., & Swanwick, T.

Learning objectives lay the foundation for a lesson. As the quote above alludes to, they (learning objectives) provide not only a starting point, but also a destination. When crafted meaningfully, learning objectives can provide nurse educators with measurable and observable behaviors. In addition, when communicated early, often, and clearly, learning objectives can better address student, staff, and patient learning needs.

Learning needs, or gaps in knowledge, range from concepts and attitudes to psychomotor skills. In addition, the learning needs of baccalaureate nursing students will differ greatly from the learning needs of doctoral nursing students. Likewise, the learning needs of cardiac patients will differ from those of diabetic patients. In effect, the learning experiences in which each audience engages must be carefully and meaningfully tailored towards their specific needs.NURS 6331: Week 2: Addressing Learner Needs With Learning Objectives Essay

To prepare

• Select an audience of learners (nursing students, nursing staff, or patients) that you are interested in teaching.
• Reflect on the diverse learning needs of this specific audience and select one to further investigate for your Discussion*.
• Review the article, Writing Learning Objectives that Help You Teach and Students Learn (Part 1), and the links to the Lesson Plan Tutorials, which are located in this week’s Learning Resources. Reflect on the examples and non-examples of action verbs. Then, consider the action verbs that you might select to address the identified learning need.
• Review the Crafting Learning Objectives document, which is located in this week’s Learning Resources. Then, craft at least two learning objectives—relevant to the learning need that you identified, which follow the format required of the Nursing Education specialization.
• Consider learning activities that might align to these learning objectives. For example, if the learning objective is to demonstrate the ability to accurately take a patient’s blood pressure, the activity should involve students practicing the process of blood pressure readings; if the learning objective is to compare learning theories, the activity may include a small group discussion.
• Consider how each activity could be used to meaningfully assess student, staff, or patient learning.
• Keeping the audience and learning need in mind, create a description of a learning activity that aligns to the objectives.

* Select an audience and learning need about which you are genuinely interested. You will keep this focus (audience, learning need, learning objectives) and expand on it over the next three Discussions.

By Day 3

Post the audience and learning need that you have selected. Describe the learning activity that you might use to address this need and identify at least two appropriate learning objectives. Explain how each objective aligns to the learning activity, as well as how each objective can be used to meaningfully assess student, staff, or patient learning. Justify your response with references to this week’s Learning Resources and current literature.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days using one or more of the following approaches:

• Critique the alignment of a colleague’s learning activity and learning objectives by offering additional insights from this week’s Learning Resources or current literature.
• Critique a colleague’s learning objectives by identifying strengths and/or suggestions for improvement.
• Offer and support an additional activity a colleague could have created to address his or her selected learning need.NURS 6331: Week 2: Addressing Learner Needs With Learning Objectives Essay