Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Jean Higgins
Keywords
academic affairs committee, adult learning, business, career technical education, classroom technology, course development, course syllabus, curriculum development, engineering, formative committee, funding, health care education, health technologies, human services, learning styles, Lima Technical College, literature review, neurological content, neurological course, nursing, nursing curriculum, nursing education, nursing faculty, strategic planning, strategic planning council, summative committee, survey validation, syllabus development, teaching methodology, technology integration, textbook review, three-credit-hour course
Abstract
Lima Technical College specializes in offering career technical education programs in business, engineering, health technologies, and human services. Because of the emphasis on technical education, the strategic plan of the college has identified the use of technology in the classroom as an important teaching methodology since 1992.
The problem was that there was a need to develop additional courses incorporating the use of technology as a teaching strategy into the nursing curriculum so that the program would continue to be considered for funding of future initiatives. Senior administrators, at the College stated that unless nursing faculty members designed ways to incorporate technology into new or existing courses, the Strategic Planning Council would be less likely to award future money to the program. Had technology not been incorporated into a nursing course, future monies would have been denied, and the program would soon have become outdated and be forced to close.
The purpose of the study was to develop a syllabus for a proposed new three-hour neurological course that incorporated the use of technology as a teaching strategy. There were three research questions for the developmental practicum. First " What neurological content areas are most commonly encountered in textbooks for nursing students?'' Second, "How could the neurological content best be presented to students?'' Third, "How could the use of technology best be utilized in presenting the neurological content to students?''
There were five steps used to complete the developmental practicum. The developmental study began with a review of the literature, which included the concepts of learning styles, adult learning principles, the use of technology in education, and concepts included in a course syllabus. Then a formative committee, composed of several persons employed at L TC, who were interested in health care education and the use of technology in education, was formed. Members of the formative committee identified the concepts to be included in a course syllabus and then developed a proposed syllabus for a three credit-hour neurological course. The formative committee members also developed a survey with which to validate the work of the committee. A summative committee, composed of persons not affiliated with the college, validated the work of the formative committee. The summative committee members validated the work of the formative committee members and the results were shared with the nursing faculty members of L TC. Nursing faculty members in turn, recommended that the syllabus developed by the formative committee be shared with the members of the Academic Affairs Committee at LTC for possible adoption of the proposed course. Finally, the report was presented to the appropriate faculty at Nova Southeastern University.