The two forms of curriculum structure considered by the Curriculum Committee are relevant since they will each develop creative and rational ideas that would be embraced by the learning institution to accommodate the proposed changes. It is the responsibility of each committee to come up with ideas, and justify why they should be selected at the expense of their counterparts. Each committee comprises of individuals that have been highly trained and experienced in different matters and are aware of the impending changes and impact such would have on the students both in the short-term and in the long-term.
Two independent committees could be created in order to facilitate curriculum development. Each would introduce all necessary elements of the curriculum, leaving the details of course development to the relevant faculty to ensure educators handling the students personalize the process (Billing & Halstead, 2015). This is because the educators deal with students directly and understand the challenges they face when in the classroom and have to follow the stipulated curriculum.
Dr. Williams can help faculty to view scholarship as an integral part of curriculum work by creating the impression that students are given a chance to make a difference in their lives despite their economic strengths and they are expected to follow the stipulated guideline in a learning institution. Members should be a percentage of faculty members who act as representatives and trainers who will pool their ideas together and develop strategies.
Faculty development activities that could be helpful as curriculum development begins include identifying the weaknesses of the current model and probing what other training institutions have been using that give them maximum results. This will give the faculty a chance to deliberate on whether the change is necessary or not, since it will influence the ability of nurse educators to provide services to learners.
Instructional Design Models and Frameworks
I envision myself utilizing the Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) model as I develop nursing curriculum, since it uses a simplified process that allows students to understand the intended academic content. It is flexible and allows trainers to introduce changes as the need arises by recognizing that there are unforeseen challenges that educators might face in the classroom. Advantages that a needs analysis yields with regard to human performance improvement specific to nursing students include behaviorism and social learning corrective measures (Seel et al., 2017).
Educators would first identify the impending behavioral challenges that students have, and design the model to ensure such a learner goes through a corrective process. For instance, an educator could directly engage and guide the student by advising them on what they should do to succeed in their career.
I would describe the five different phases of ADDIE, which are analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation, as simple yet effective in producing effective results for the learners and educators as they interact in the classroom. The simplicity and easy to understand processes of the ADDIE model are some of the immediate advantages of embracing this strategy in the workplace (Seel et al., 2017). While the limitation is that it is an outdated model that limits educators from being innovative since they must adhere to the structured model.
Building a Learning Activity
Instructional problem for a course entitled “The Role of the BSN Nurse in Promoting Community Health” is ‘Treatment of a drug addict recovering patient with regular relapses.’ Nurses are expected to offer their professional services to different individuals and must personalize each case to ensure they give them maximum attention and improve their recovery process. Handling an individual who has been on drugs and experiences relapse moments would necessitate nurses to be patient and considerate in their approach since the person needs a firm professional approach that will encourage them to maintain sobriety. The nurse will constantly communicate with the patient while allowing them to express their concerns and weaknesses and come up with an alternative strategy that will prevent the relapses from taking place.
Learner characteristics capable of influencing the instructional design include creative and rational thinking skills, communication and problem-solving skills, and management and self-driven skills (Obizoba, 2015). Such a learner will independently come up with an instructional design while taking into consideration that enough space for errors should be left to accommodate the unforeseen challenges and circumstances. The learners’ instructional objectives are to develop a strategy that will encourage the patient to be persistent in their approach and designing a curative model that will be used for the patient.
Approaching Course Design and Construction
Mapping the course concepts, context, and content to one another could be done by personalizing the nurse educator objectives with a student’s goals. This means that each student must evaluate the course concepts before adopting them to the relevant context, and then ensuring they relate and make sense while making a connection with their experiences. Learners should understand that each course concept has been carefully designed before they are provided with them which mean they have a responsibility to understand what each entails, and the context within which it is intended.
Proposed scheme to follow if a design of the final course does not correspond with the previous curriculum map is to adjust and be flexible as the concepts are introduced in the classroom. It is the responsibility of each learner to be open-minded by understanding that changes in the curriculum can take place, with what was previously thought to be the plan being eliminated (Billing & Halstead, 2015). The justification for this is that changes are introduced by external forces, which are beyond the control and influence of the nurse educator who must also incorporate the transformations to accommodate the new developments.
Faculty development activities that would facilitate course creation include attachment for learners and personal presentations during lessons. Academic attachment for nurses is crucial as it exposes to real-life work environments which prepares them for the future as they will be expected to directly interact with patients and offer professional services. Presentations during lessons would give each learner the impression that they must possess public speaking and communication skills, which are relevant in their line of work. Being confident as they express themselves will send a positive message to the patients that they are being cared by professionals.
Developing for Distance Learning
Factors that may have led some faculty to propose a greater emphasis on technology-based courses is the ongoing developments in the world that have allowed digitalization of service delivery, the emergence and subsequent disruptions to education triggered by COVID-19 and the high demand of such a provision from local and international students. Learning institutions introduce changes in their service delivery approach based on internal and external factors, which must be carefully evaluated before being implemented in the workplace. Arguably, the success of technology-based courses in the past may have directly influenced the faculty members to make the current suggestion.
The Curriculum Committee might need to be deliberate in their approach by answering questions such as, how would the students interact with each other, how would the trainers identify the weaknesses and strengths of each student, how will the learning objectives be achieved, while the school leader needs to determine how practical lessons will be delivered to the learners through the digital platforms (Christensen & Simmons, 2020). Faculty members need to determine how they will access the performance of each student before they can be considered to have been fully trained.
Advantages for students and faculty in increasing technology-based learning include flexibility for both groups and improved accessibility for all persons since learners will always be connected through digital platforms. A disadvantage for students using the technology-based learning is that they may not be responsible in attending all lessons, while the faculty members may fail to keep track of all their learners due to the physical differences between them. It is not educationally sound to ask that all nursing theory courses incorporate some web-based technology since it would limit the personal interactions between the students and educators (Edyburn, 2015). It would create the impression that theoretical concepts are irrelevant because of the use of web-based technology while affirming that students should only be concerned about the practical lessons.
NLN Core Competencies and Assessment Review the NLN Core Competencies of Nurse Educators with Task Statements
It is the responsibility of the nurse educator to be creative and innovative while in the classroom since they understand the needs of their target audience, and must directly contribute to their performance at the end of each academic year. For instance, educators must deliberately select the extant literature they will use while teaching the students, and ensure that such publications meet the necessary academic standards.
Informing students on what they should examine when looking for resources will also enhance their research skills. Arguably, the use of different strategies to assess and evaluate learning in the cognitive and psychomotor domains is relevant as it affirms that students are gifted differently and must be handled with high levels of professionalism (Iwasiw & Goldenberg, 2020). It is crucial that different strategies are used to accommodate the various challenges that exist in the classroom. It enables the educators recognize that all learners possess different strengths and weaknesses.
The use of assessment and evaluation data to enhance the teaching-learning process would enable the educator areas of improvement amongst students since it would capture areas they failed to understand. For instance, poor performance by all learners after an assessment creates the impression that an educator was not effective in their delivery strategy as they failed to incorporate the needs of learners (Perez, 2015). Topics that need more attention would be revealed through the assessment tools while evaluation data would summarize the quantitative performance the learners have managed to achieve within that period. Provision of feedback to learners informs them of the progress they have made in their studies as they also know areas of weaknesses. It gives the learners the chance to improve on weak areas as they consult their trainers.
Clinical Competence Stage
I am at the beginner’s level of experience at it relates to my role as an academic nurse educator. I have not yet acquired the relevant skills and expertise required to move to the next level since it requires an individual that has gone through a thorough training process who is also experienced by directly interacting with learners (Benner, 1982). I have just begun my training to be a nurse educator and I believe that I must first achieve some significant goals and objectives before I could be perceived to be fully trained and competent to handle trainees.
I believe my personal commitment towards becoming a fully trained nurse educator is the first step towards being a competent nurse educator while also following the stipulated guidelines that each professional is expected to uphold before they could be confirmed as an individual that could handle students satisfactorily (Keating & DeBoor, 2018). I expect that at the end of the training process, I will have reached the expert level and will nurture other educators in the long-term.
COPA Model
The framework, concepts, and methods of the Competency Outcomes and Performance Assessment (COPA) Model could be used to assess the environment an educator will be serving to determine the best approach he or she will use to maximize the skills learners gain at the end of the training period. It also ensures that an educator carefully determines the content and competencies that will be addressed in a learning setting by recognizing that each facility is characterized with different opportunities and challenges (Benner, 1982). Customizing the approach adopted in each setting would enhance the academic content taught to the learners. I agree with Lenburg’s (1999) eight core practice competencies as they summarize what an educator should do and skills and values they should possess to ensure they positively influence the trainees placed under them.
Formative and summative strategies for addressing the eight competencies based on the domains of learning and the learner’s experience level would depend on the surroundings and goals that need to be achieved at the end of the training period.
Academic Freedom
The academic nurse teacher may misuse academic freedom by going against the institutional recommended communication and speech processes. It is crucial that a nurse educator deliberates on the choice of words they use when engaging and addressing the learners since students pick up from their trainer. The academic nurse trainer misuses their academic freedom by failing to follow the stipulated guideline to ensure students gain the expected skills that will enhance their career (Billing & Halstead, 2015). Academic freedom could be violated by interference from the learning institution, pressure from the public, and regulations developed by the facility.
The management team of the nursing facility may come up with strict laws and regulations that may prevent the lecturers from delivering quality teaching services to the learners. Additionally, external pressure from the public may have an effect on the ability of a nursing school from fully pursuing its core objectives. Regulations and requirements from a learning facility may prevent the lecturers from exercising the freedom to teach which would affect the students’ performance at the end of each academic year.
Resources used to explore the concept of academic freedom include journals and articles that have addressed how academic freedom affects the ability of nursing lecturers and other relevant nurse educators exercise their duty of teaching (Perez, 2015). The justification for using these resources is that they contain the most recent information about academic freedom and how it affects the ability of learners to access quality services from the facilities that equip them with knowledge and skills needed to practice their career. Academic freedom allows students to get exposed to different learning environments as they enjoy their constitutional rights of expression and speech.
Reflecting on Reflecting
I have used reflection to improve my learning and professional experiences by ensuring I have covered all required areas. Observing the required rules in the classroom and highlighting all the objectives that I have managed to fulfill has contributed to my learning process. I am better prepared to work in a healthcare facility as I have theoretical knowledge and have been encouraged by my trainers on the need to be professional in my practice. Academic nurse educators can help students to see the value in reflective practice by directly encouraging them to constantly evaluate their learning progress which will enable learners identify areas they have experienced success and challenges. They can use the opportunity to resolve issues faced when learning, and recapture what they learned.
I will convince my students that reflecting on their learning experiences will help them academically and professionally successful by using myself as an example to justify the changes that have taken place as a result of reflecting. I will state what has changed in my career and ability to remain professional in my practice through reflection as it corrected areas where I had applied a wrong approach. Teaching strategies I will use to encourage contemplation in action and journaling as a method of experiential learning is creating the sense of personal responsibility for all learners. I will require all learners to maintain a journal, which they fill at the end of each week, capturing their experiences, both positive and negative, allowing themselves to record what they perceived to be relevant or irrelevant in their lessons. At the end of two months, I will request the learners to compare the progress and changes they experienced as they were exposed to new academic content.
Final Course Reflection—Assessment and Evaluation Strategies for Measuring Student Learning
I already knew that evaluation of course assessments took place at the end of each academic year. I was also aware that it is a thorough process characterized by intense reflection as each student is expected to recapture what they have learned over the years while recognizing that they should have achieved certain objectives at that period. My approach towards assessment has changed and gone through an evolution as I understand that in as much as nurse educators invest their time and resources; students also have the largest responsibility to study (Billing & Halstead, 2015). The reflection procedure examines what has already been covered in class while evaluating what will take place in the future since learners are expected to make suggestions on how they will handle upcoming challenges.
I was surprised that there are many detailed questions a learner is expected to answer as I expected the evaluation of course assessment took less than one hour to complete. I am reminded that I need to always prepare and equip myself with the relevant skills that will improve my learning and practical abilities. I also noted that a reflection is more about what I think worked for me during that academic year as opposed to presenting an opinion about the content taught in class. Academic nurse educator competency requirements are relevant since it acts as a regulation to the individuals that train the professional nurses who handle members of the public directly through service provision. The requirements ensure trained nurses are highly efficient and handle the patients assigned to them through a professional manner.
I will meet the competency by strictly observing and following what is required of an academic nurse educator. I will include continuous improvement and personal responsibility in my professional development plan to ensure I continue to build my competence in the evaluation of assessment.