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

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

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.

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

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Addressing Learner Needs With Learning Objectives

Introduction

I’ve worked with a lot of different school districts, and I’ve noticed a trend: there’s always an emphasis on the “what” in learner needs. The question is, what do we mean by this? In this article, we’ll explore the three types of learner needs and explore how to assess them and create learning objectives that address those needs.

Learner Needs are:

Learner needs are the reason why a learner is taking a course. They can be internal or external, and can change over time. Internal learner needs are those that come from within an individual, whereas external needs are those that stem from outside influences (such as your job).

Examples of internal learner needs include:

• To learn how to do something in order to become more proficient at it;

• To achieve certain skills or knowledge in order to perform well in a specific role/role setting;

• To pass an exam so that the person has access to further learning opportunities available through their chosen field of study;

Examples of external learner needs include:

• If a student wants access into higher education courses without having been accepted into university firstly through clearing their GCSEs first then this will help them gain entry into higher education courses without having wasted time off school by going through exams again which could take years because some people don’t know what subjects they want so they end up doing other things such as volunteering work instead!

What is a Learner Need?

A learner need is a problem that a learner has. It’s the reason why a learner is taking the course and/or needs to learn something. It’s not a learning objective, though it may be related to one. A student might say “I need to know how to write an essay” or “I want to improve my grammar.”

If you’re wondering what this means for your course design, think about how much time you spend on each of these things in order for your students’ needs are met:

• Do I have enough time?

• Is there enough content?

• Am I providing enough support and guidance so people can succeed at self-directed learning?

Learner Needs Assessment

Before you begin to address learner needs, you must first understand what they are. The best way to do this is through a learner needs assessment. This can be done by asking your students questions about their experiences in the classroom and then using data from those responses as a starting point for a more detailed analysis (“What does this mean?”).

Once you have identified all of your learners’ needs and addressed them appropriately, it’s important that you evaluate whether or not you’ve met those needs with your curriculum design. It may seem obvious—but many educators overlook this step because they assume that if they’ve addressed each need individually then everything will be fine! However, if there are still some gaps in understanding or attention being paid towards certain topics outside of class time then these areas should be further explored during planning sessions before implementation begins so that everyone knows where exactly their focus will lie during instruction sessions (e..g., reading vs writing).

Learner’s Name (Creation)

You can create a learner by entering their name, email address and password. Once created, you will have access to the following:

• The ability to add or change their details such as name and location (additional information will be provided upon request)

• Viewing their progress in real time as they work through the course material

• Reviewing previous questions and feedback received from them on those questions

Learner’s Name (Approval)

Learner’s Name (Approval)

This field is used to enter the name of a person who approves the learner need. This can be either an instructional designer or project manager, depending on how your organization operates. The purpose of this field is to help you keep track of what level of approval was given for each learner need, which helps you ensure that all required resources are available for each learner need and that appropriate decisions have been made about those resources and their allocation.

Learner’s Name (Update)

• Update the learner’s name, contact information, role and organization.

• Update their email address and phone number if they have one.

Learner needs are important when creating learning objectives

Learner needs assessment is a process, not an event. It’s like the stage of life that you are in and where you are headed—it’s up to you to make sure that your needs are met. If your goal is to be successful, then it’s important to know what kind of learner you are so that you can design learning objectives accordingly.

The learner needs assessment process allows for the discovery of how best to meet each individual’s unique needs through observation, discussion and reflection on their work environment or task performance over time. This step helps identify areas where improvement can be made by providing clear expectations for success at each level (i.e., basic skills vs complex tasks) with measurable outcomes based on these levels achieved consistently throughout an employee’s career at any given job title within a company

Conclusion

So, creating learning objectives is a great way to make sure your students are learning what they need. But if you want even more certainty that they are getting that information, take advantage of the tools at your fingertips and ask them! A good way to do this is by using a survey or online questionnaires where you can ask them directly about their needs as learners.