Mentored Teaching Experience

During the Spring 2024 Semester, I served as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for Dr. Pamela Bishop’s section of NURS 709 Evidence-Based Research and Theories for Nursing Practice.  My preceptor for the course was Dr. Janice Hawkins.  Both of these faculty members are clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), so I appreciate their mentorship as a novice CNS myself.  Since it was a spring semester, it was a traditional 16-week course.  This was an invaluable experience for me because this was the first time I instructed students at the graduate-level.  I appreciated the opportunity because with more nursing programs becoming hybrid or distance learning, this experience gave me insight into teaching a course online.  Since the course was completely asynchronous, much of the onus is on the students to reach out to the instructors for questions and assistance.  This is the first graduate-level research course the students take (two more in the doctoral program) and I was able to quickly see students that needed more encouragement.  Canvas is the learning management system Old Dominion University uses, so it was significantly helpful to see the instructor’s “side.”

Lessons Learned

• Although Canvas is indeed intuitive, there were instances where my lack of experience with was evident.  I had a student reach out to me because I gave them a failing grade.  Actually, I took a break from grading halfway through the rubric.  I didn’t realize that as I was entering the scores, it was calculating their grade.  I had to reassure the student that they did not fail, rather I was not yet done grading the assignment.   
• The discussion board is the quintessential assignment of a distance learning course.  Being a student myself, I was able to observe when students were repeating themselves or rambling to create their post.  At first glance, it looks substantial, but when you get to reviewing it, it was actually superficial.  
• More effort is required to engage with the students given the impersonal nature of asynchronous coursework.

Process Improvement

Like I said, I am a CNS, so integrating the three spheres of impact, I observed the pass/fail assignment needing more direction.  Although originally designed to be a practice assignment in preparation for the pinnacle assignment, i.e. research critique, the students did not appreciate or leverage the opportunity presented to them.  They essentially “checked the box,” submitting lackluster compositions.  Seeing the need to provide more direction, I prepared a rubric for my course coordinator to consider implementing for the course.  She shared that the rationale behind the pass/fail was to return time back to the instructors for the numerous assignments to grade, but given the quality of the submissions was variable, she liked the idea.  The rubric, viewable on the previous page, was accepted and will be incorporated into the course.

Final Thoughts 

I am so thankful for this mentored teaching experience.  I received great advice from my mentors and contributed to the course in an impactful way.  I originally was disgruntled about TA’g a research class, but I’ve grown an appreciation for the course.  I leave this experience more confident in my abilities to handle challenging students and prepared to teach in any setting, in-person or virtual.