|
Volume V, Issue 4 February 2009 |
Quinsigamond
Community College |
|
|
Staff Development Links
Staff
Development
Staff Development
Staff
Development
Erica Merrill
Staff Development
February's Events
Instructional Technology
Workshops for Faculty:
The Wellness
CUPA-HR Webinar:
Innovative
Educators Webinar:
All College Day
"Reprise"
Instructional Technology
Workshops for Faculty:
"How To Complete
Your Perkins 2009 Faculty Externship Proposal"
QCC Book Club:
Reading
Roundtable:
In accordance with the college's strategic initiative to optimize the use of technology for improved and cost-effective communication, this newsletter is being distributed electronically as the best means for information-sharing with faculty and staff. |
Editor: Erica Merrill Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing Education: "Where is the Evidence?" by Patricia Creelman Secrets of the 18th Annual AccuPlacer Conference by Robin Simonelli
Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing Education: "Where
is the Evidence?" This conference, sponsored by the Massachusetts Rhode Island League for Nursing, was offered to explore the concept of evidenced-based practice and discuss methodologies that effectively assist educators in incorporating evidence-based practice into the Nurse Education Curriculum. An overview of evidence-based practice was offered by Patricia Dardano, DNS, RN, who is the Chair of the Doctor in Nursing Practice Program at Regis College. During her presentation, Ms. Dardano discussed the need for the incorporation of evidence-based practice into nursing practice. She cited numerous ways in which health care would benefit, including: improved patient outcomes; improved cost containment; creation of more satisfied health care practitioners; and bridging the gap between published research findings and translation of this information into practice. She also discussed ways in which evidence-based practice can be incorporated from an organizational and nursing practice point of view. She emphasized that, as educators, we are compelled to introduce our students to evidence-based practice, as a concept, and invited us to explore ways in which this goal can be accomplished. Nancy Bitner, PhD, RN, Associate Dean of Nursing at Regis College, presented an overview of the many ways in which evidenced-based practice can be applied to a nurse education curriculum. She discussed the importance of critical thinking and emphasized the need for nurse educators to create a climate of “questioning”; no longer is it acceptable for students to accept factual knowledge without exploring the research to support these facts. Although in an Associate Degree in Nursing program there is not typically a required “Nursing Research” course, Ms. Bitner offered numerous suggestions of ways in which nursing research can be explored and addressed in a traditional Associate Degree in Nursing curriculum plan. She shared information regarding good sources of evidence-based practice research, such as: CINAHL; MEDLINE; ERIC; NIH; and numerous specialty web sites, including: American Heart Association; American Lung Association; and American Cancer Society. She suggested that students should be introduced to publications that offer quality research information, such as: Nursing Research; Journal of Nursing Scholarship; Research in Nursing and Health; and Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice. She invited participants to create written assignments within their respective courses that would require students to investigate and evaluate research findings in some of the above sources. Nancy Craig-Williams, MS, RN, Nursing Professor at Greenfield Community College, offered the final segment of this conference and further discussed “Evidence-Based Strategies for Educators”. She discussed several factors, reported in the research, that were cited as interfering with the ability of nurse educators and clinical nurses to incorporate this topic into their respective practice. Some reasons cited included: lack of training regarding research; lack of library access; and limited computer skills. In particular to Nursing educators, she suggested that we have the responsibility to introduce our students to each of these areas within the curriculum plan. She called upon faculty to serve as role models in demonstrating the value of nursing research and to utilize nursing research within coursework. In particular, including sources of resources, demonstrating use of web resources and creating expectations of the same within student nurses are essential to reverse the current attitudes towards the use of evidence-based practice issues. Students should possess an understanding of basic research concepts, should participate in data collection, should be required to read original research and should be included in efforts that facilitate the integration of evidence into practice. Evidence-based practice should be incorporated as a curriculum thread and developed throughout all aspects of the Nurse Education curriculum. Students should be familiar with library resources and be aware of the location of resources, databases and referencing protocols. Educators could incorporate educational strategies into classroom and clinical learning experiences that would further develop these skills. Some clinical learning experiences would include pre- and post-conference discussions, portfolio development, clinical case reports and reflective journals. Some classroom methodologies might include case studies, problem-based learning, student presentations, and structured debates.
Secrets of the 18th Annual AccuPlacer Conference Did I get your attention? This conference was held in Ft. Lauderdale Florida at the Harbor Beach Marriott Resort & Spa; the location, very enticing? Anyway, enough about the surroundings for now – the conference was very much alive and the presenters were believers of education and testing the students with AccuPlacer. The presentations were given by a mixture of experienced users who made it through the migration to the New Platform and some new users who are still learning but coming in with some very good questions. “Successful Uses of AccuPlacer Across a College-Wide System” Three representatives from Miami Dade College did a wonderful presentation on the way in which their eight campuses handle testing. Since they are such a huge institution, each campus has a Testing Director/Coordinator and that person answers to the Dean and the Institutional Leader. They have one Institutional Leader, Silvio Rodriguez, Director of Test Administration, who shares all of the testing rules, communications, and trainings. He basically makes sure the Directors/Coordinators are all trained, up-to-date, and consistent with the testing and testing rules. Mr. Rodriguez has been working at the college for 20 years, and he has been with the college as the testing environment has moved to using computers for quicker test results, consistency across campuses, as well as across the states. Their institution follows many of the same practices as our school in regards to testing, but with one large difference. They are allowing their students to retest many times, but they are advising them to seek intervention and preparation before each test. They are rethinking this issue because of the rising costs of testing. They are also at the beginning stages of going out to high schools and testing juniors and seniors who are interested in attending one of their college campuses. Adam Porro, Director of Testing, College Readiness Initiative, spoke about his visits to high schools and how they try to bring groups of high school students to the college first, introduce them to the school, give them study guides, and then set a date to go out to the school to administer the test. It is a collaborative effort between the campuses and the guidance departments of the high schools. The third representative to present was Sofia Villalobos Tavarez, Director of Testing. She spoke about the student profile for their area: 66% Hispanic; 10 % white non-Hispanic; and 21% black non-Hispanic. However, 79% of their students with an Associate in Arts degree continue their education at a four-year college or university immediately upon graduation, and 86% of graduates who transferred to the university system had satisfactory GPAs during the first year. I don’t know how this compares to our students, but I was impressed! I think it all means that successful placement into courses leads to retention, which leads to successful graduation, and a better way of life – either into the state university system or the work force. “AccuPlacer Program Updates” According to David Parmele, the presenter of this session, the College Board is moving to upgrade their connectivity to be compatible with Windows and Vista. They are updating the item pools, introducing new items, making some changes to the WritePlacer scoring of essays, and providing new diagnostic tests. All of these items will be coming out in spring 2009. The training will be less intensive than the last changes, and they will not have a certificate attached. Learning the new changes, understanding them, and sharing them with Deans and campus staff will be the responsibility of the Directors/Coordinators/Assessment Specialists at the campuses. “Senior Assessment for College Recruitment, Testing, Follow-Up” Representatives from Sacramento City College created a great handout, with 10 attachments, for any and all schools that might want to follow their how-to, step-by-step guide regarding recruitment, testing, and follow-up with the area high schools. Their school has been working 25 years with a Senior Assessment to College Program – they truly know what they are doing! Their Assessment Office, Admissions Office, and High School Outreach Department all work together to bring about an enrollment of 25,000+ students. This school has moved from bringing pencils and paper to high schools to going out and providing the online AccuPlacer test to the area high schools. They have brought their visits into this century and are doing a lot of electronic record-keeping. I felt that they were pretty much in balance with what we’re doing with testing at Quinsigamond. I had the pleasure of dining with this group the evening before their presentation workshop and found them to be a lot of fun. Sharlene Tran invited me to sit with them; Ms. Tran works in the area of Outreach. She visits the schools and administers the test to the high school students. She was very personable and open to talk to during dinner. We talked all about the similarities in our testing. There were four others from Sacramento City College; I had the opportunity during that evening to talk to each one. They are a fine-tuned bunch that work well with one another and still respect the boundaries of their jobs. “AccuPlacer in the High Schools: A Review of Our First Two Years” Liz Recko-Morrison works at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA. She is the Testing Coordinator that works with hiring part-time staff and ensuring that there are enough staff members to go out and test the students. She said that they tried arranging hours after school and that was not at all effective. She found it works best if the times are scheduled with the school during regular school hours. She stressed the importance of follow-up with the schools. Once the students have tested, go over the results, and follow up with the guidance department so that they can help the students when the college staff members have left. Encourage joint meetings between high school counselors and Assessment. Let the high schools know that there is an initiative to help high school students test early to ensure a smooth transition to college. High schools find the information that the test results provide for them invaluable. They can begin to look at curriculum and develop their classes to better prepare for College. Ms. Recko-Morrison stated that a high school testing program is high energy but is worth every effort. It positively impacts the students in many ways. It allows the students a glimpse of college in their own environment, and it provides for development of good will between the high schools and College. “Cutting the AccuPlacer Elementary Algebra Failure Rate in Half” Tim Hagopian was an adjunct faculty member at Quinsigamond years ago. He presented a workshop on something he initiated at Worcester State College. He thought that if he could provide Math students with an early look into the AccuPlacer test, by providing them with websites and practice, then they would test better on their initial test and begin their Math courses at a higher level. He gave out his findings, which were that by alerting the students early and giving them websites and examples to review before they were given the test, many students improved on their initial score. His figures followed Worcester State College’s transition from piloting the early help to now requiring all incoming freshmen to log in before starting school and take a practice test. The end result is that the failure rate on the elementary algebra test was cut from 54% to 36% in 2005. He provided this: “All are welcome to look at a copy of my Blackboard-based AccuPlacer simulation site and take practice tests. Go to www.worcester.edu and click on Community System. Then, log into the site with accuplacer_testprep for both the user name and password, and click on TH-AccuplacerPrep01”. “Play Time!” An evening “Jungle Queen Dinner Cruise” was offered as part of the conference, to share our learning. I passed on the cruise for my own pedicure and quiet time at the pool. All work and no play makes for a very dull conference! “WritePlacer” The last workshop was “WritePlacer”, presented by Suzanne Murphy, Brad Bostian, Delryn Fleming, and Rose Watson. This was one of the scariest workshops for me because it’s the first time that I’m hearing that there will be changes to the way the Essays will be scored. College Board is moving to this 8 pt rubric system with new topics geared to critical thinking to keep up with the generation of learners. This area will have new topics, new dimension scores that will determine placement: purpose and focus, organization and structure, development and support, sentence, variety and style, critical thinking, and mechanical conventions. The changes are being done by Pearson; they are using Intelligent Essay Assessor, and they are still working on this new plan for Spring 2009. Personal Note from Robin Simonelli I’ve set up a notebook with all the documents that I received while attending this conference. If anyone would like to borrow it, just email me in advance, and I can provide a copy for you to look through.
© Staff Development, Quinsigamond Community College 2009. |