Introduction
This session was one of the best professional development seminars I’ve ever attended because its utilization goes beyond the classroom. As a health care professional and current clinic manager, communication is a critical leadership skill. PowerPoint Presentations are the standard communicative delivery aid, but with the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve become desensitized to PowerPoints. The tools provided in this presentation will enhance and keep listeners engaged.
Three Lessons/Key Points
One key point the presentation discussed was collaborative learning, where students work in groups to “pursue mutual learning goals,” share ideas, and synthesize inputs to a common product. This is a great opportunity, especially when interprofessional collaboration is involved. Healthcare is a team sport, therefore, the varying perspectives are crucial to optimizing patient care. Collaborating with the other health professions fosters critical thinking and challenges one’s viewpoints; not one discipline can do it all, so the networking is invaluable. There are competencies associated with interprofessional collaboration and affords opportunities for leadership, advocacy, and role clarification.
In the realm of collaborative learning, this lecture provided many engaging learning activity examples. One such strategy is the multimedia discussion board. Because of our ever evolving society, many students are pursuing their education in a distance learning or online format. Whether it be job, family life, or other goals, the COVID-19 pandemic engrained and reinforced tele-“everything,” e.g., telework, telehealth, etc. There is a degree of informality with standard discussion boards. By recording one’s responses to another post, we can quickly deliver or response and communicate with the spoken work like would normally do in the classroom. It’s underutilized and I anticipate using this in the future, especially if teaching ethics or nursing leadership.
Lastly, one lesson learned from the presentation is the myriad of learning tools available to us within existing platforms. The learning management system, i.e. Canvas, Blackboard, etc., has tools that can enhance learning such as attendance management, course collaboration tools, lucid whiteboard, media gallery, rubrics, and Yuja accessibility. This requires a lot of preparation and deliberateness on the professor, however, if done well, it improves the “classroom.” Apparently, I am also underutilizing Zoom. I’ve traditionally only used these meeting applications for just the meeting. However, I can get better with breakout rooms, pools, and the whiteboard. This too will take practice, but again, if it will cover every student’s learning style, the investment is worth it.
Unanswered Question or One Piece of Advice
One piece of advice I have regarding these student engagement techniques is to gauge the audience prior to using a specific strategy. What I mean is not everyone learns from a video, (multimedia) discussion board, game, or reflection. Therefore, administering a learning styles assessment at the beginning of the semester allows me to pivot my lesson plans to capture the majority. I learned early on that I am a kinesthetic learner and nursing (or any health profession for that matter) requires hands-on practice. I struggled in the theory courses, but did just fine in clinical because I got to “do” the thing we learned in class. This will be the challenge in distance-based classes, but it can be done with intentionality, planning, and creativity.
Faculty Preparation
This event was incredibly helpful, so much that I requested from the Center for Faculty Development to a copy of the slides. Reason being, I foresee myself referencing the presentation tools in the future to change my approach. Our current generation of students is changing. Gone are the days of traditional lecture-style, classroom-based learning. Students are wanting interesting, engaging, and dynamic lectures. Not one to underdeliver, I will use Poll Everywhere in the future as a way to see if I’m reaching the students. It’s a great way to retain everyone’s attention, but also not embarrass anyone if they get the wrong answer.
Date Attended: Sep 24, 2024 as part of the Old Dominion University Center for Faculty Development’s “Day of Teaching”
