Week 1 discussion
INFLUENCING FACTORS AND ISSUES FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
To begin your journey in curriculum development and design, think about the educational needs within your own community and the external factors that influence curriculum development. Perhaps your area or facility is responding to an aging population. This may lead nurses in your healthcare setting or community at large to focus on care for growing numbers of older adults and more attention to chronic disease prevention and control. Another deciding external factor might be the local political climate and support from community leaders for such efforts.
Internal factors influencing curriculum development must also be considered, which notably would include those from within a parent agency or institution, such as available resources and financing.
For this Discussion, you will examine your current practice setting or one from your previous experience to analyze external and internal factors that influence curriculum development, as well as strategies to address both external and internal factors.
Note: When developing educational programs, external factors related to accreditation and regulatory factors would also be of concern. Those will be fully explored in Week 2. In preparing your Discussion post, do not reference accrediting bodies or regulatory agencies.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Review Billings and Halstead course text Chapters 5 and 6 and Chapters 2–4 of the Keating and DeBoor resource found in this week’s Learning Resources and consider external and internal factors that influence curriculum development.
Consider your current practice setting or prior experience in a professional setting. Use that current or prior setting as the focus for this Discussion.
Select two external and two internal factors related to your current or previous professional setting.
Consider how those external and internal factors would influence curriculum development in your current or previous professional setting.
Consider strategies needed to address these factors.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 1
Using the concepts from the Billings and Halstead and Keating and DeBoor resources, post the following:
Briefly describe your setting (i.e., your current or previous practice setting.
Note: Anonymity will be important, but you might refer to your practice setting with general details, such as: “Mid-size, 150-bed hospital.”)
Explain the 2 external and 2 internal factors that influence curriculum development in your setting.
Propose how you might apply strategies to address these external and internal factors that influence curriculum development.
Use the Learning Resources and/or the best available evidence from current literature to support your post.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
Week 2 discussion
At the start of this week, your Instructor placed you in a Discussion group whose focus is on a different educational/health setting than that of your Course Project. You will remain in this Discussion group for the duration of the course to help you in developing perspective on creating curriculum for another setting. Please see the “Course Announcements” area of the classroom for your designated Group. The Week 1 Discussion addressed external and internal factors that influence curriculum development.
This Discussion continues to look at external factors but specifically in relation to accreditation and regulation. Assume the role of a nurse educator in your Discussion group setting. Consider your familiarity with the accrediting bodies and regulatory agencies that might apply to your setting.
For this Discussion, you will examine the accrediting bodies and regulatory agencies that you would need to engage with and the accreditation or certification process for approval. You also further explore specific standards associated with the accrediting body or agency, and how these standards are met. As noted previously, keep in mind that although accreditation for nursing programs is voluntary, it is recommended and very beneficial
Note: Remember that your Instructor assigned you to a specific Discussion Group: A, B, C, or D for this week and the rest of the course. You will remain in the same group and respond from the perspective of your Discussion group setting.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Consider the setting assigned to your Discussion Group (i.e., home care or public health agency; college or university; medical/health center; clinic or other setting). You will prepare for and respond to this Discussion from the perspective of that setting.
Review this week’s Learning Resources on accrediting bodies and the accreditation process.
Review Chapter 2 of Keating and DeBoor, “Curriculum Development and Approval Processes in Changing Educational Environments.” Consider how regulatory agencies accredit and certify clinical or academic settings. In addition, consider why a clinical or academic setting might seek accreditation or certification.
Using the websites listed in this week’s Learning Resources, as well as from your own independent research, identify the accrediting body or regulatory agency from which your Discussion group setting (program) could seek accreditation/certification.
Select three standards from the accrediting body or regulatory agency. Consider what would be required for your Discussion group setting to meet those three standards.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 2
In your Group Discussion area, post the following:
Describe your group’s setting.
Explain the accrediting body or regulatory agency from which this setting could seek accreditation/certification, and why.
Identify the standards that you selected and explain what would be required for these expectations to be met by your Discussion group setting. Justify your response by citing references from this week’s Learning Resources and/or the best available evidence from current literature.
Week 3 course project
COURSE PROJECT PART 1: NEEDS ASSESSMENT
In Week 2, you began work on Part 1 of your Course Project. For this week, you will complete and finalize your, Part 1: Needs Assessment for submission.
Once you have analyzed the external and internal factors that influence the setting of your Course Project, you will be ready to move forward to finalize your needs assessment by outlining your proposed curriculum program. Recall that this would be a team process in an actual nurse or health education setting. As you design your program, consider ways in which having team involvement would be an advantage
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Review and use the “Part 1 Planning Guide: Needs Assessment [your chosen setting],” to assist you in preparing and completing the Part 1: Needs Assessment Assignment.
ASSIGNMENT:
Finalize your Part 1: Needs Assessment.
BY DAY 7 OF WEEK 3
Submit your Part 1: Needs Assessment Module Assignment.
Reminder: The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The Sample Paper provided at the Walden Writing Center provides an example of those required elements (available at http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/57.htmLinks to an external site.). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
Week 4 discussion
DISCUSSION
Consider how something looks or feels when it is out of alignment. Typically, it appears discordant, like the picture on a wall that tilts, or the steering wheel that shakes when a vehicle is out of alignment. A curriculum does not align in such a literal way, but alignment and congruence with the parent setting is critical for coherence, nonetheless.
For this Discussion, you will examine the components that are essential to alignment when developing a nursing or other health education curriculum.
Note: Remember that your Instructor assigned you to a specific Discussion Group A, B, C, or D in Week 2. You will remain in the same group and respond from the perspective of your Discussion group setting.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Review Billings and Halstead Chapter 7, “Philosophical Foundations of the Curriculum,” and Keating and DeBoor Chapter 5, “The Classic Components of the Curriculum: Developing a Curriculum Plan,” to examine the meaning and significance of a setting’s mission, vision, and philosophy.
Review the media program on “Components of a Curriculum” in the Learning Resources and consider why nurse educators should be cognizant of their setting’s mission, vision, and philosophy when developing the mission, vision, and philosophy for a specific education program.
Also, consider the importance of alignment and congruence between an educational/health setting and educational programs within that setting. Use this week’s Learning Resources and your own independent research to identify methods that nurse educators can implement to achieve alignment and congruence of curriculum components.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 4
In your Group Discussion area, post the following:
Based on your Discussion group setting, explain how you would determine that a curriculum you develop is aligned to the mission, vision, and philosophy specific to that setting.
Explain at least two methods that nurse educators in your Discussion group setting can implement to achieve alignment and congruence between curriculum components.
Use the Learning Resources and/or the best available evidence from current literature to support your post.
Week 5 course project
COURSE PROJECT PART 2: CURRICULUM COMPONENTS
In Week 4, you began work on Part 2 of your Course Project. For this week, you will complete your Part 2: Curriculum Components for submission.
The components of a well-designed curriculum for a nursing or other health education program include many different elements that ultimately align to form a cohesive experience that demonstrates congruence with the parent organization and program mission, vision, and philosophy. It is critical that curriculum developers understand how each component is addressed, ensure that components flow in a logical and sequential order, that an implementation plan proceeds from outcomes and objectives, and that the curriculum is relevant to current and future nursing practice, or to the target learners’ health needs.
As you continue developing Part 2 of your Course Project, keep this big picture of curriculum development in mind. Having decided upon your program, mission, vision, philosophy, and overall goal, the next step is to consider a learning theory that aligns with your program setting and organizational framework. This week’s Learning Resources, as well as information from your setting and other resources that you choose, will support this process of confirming all components of your curriculum
Week 7 discussion
THE ART OF CRAFTING MEANINGFUL, MEASURABLE LEARNING OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
What is a learning objective? What is a learning outcome? While often used interchangeably, these two terms are quite different. Consider this example for clues to those differences. Suppose that you are developing a nursing course on evidence-based practice. A learning outcome might set the goal of utilizing evidence to provide safe, cost-effective patient care. An objective for such an outcome could be locating scholarly literature pertaining to improving care.
In this Discussion, you will further investigate the relationship between learning outcomes and learning objectives and develop both types of objectives for a scenario.
Note: Remember that your Instructor assigned you to a specific Discussion Group A, B, C, or D in Week 2. You will remain in the same group and respond from the perspective of your Discussion group setting.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Reflect on the Learning Resources in Weeks 6 and 7. Pay specific attention to alignment between learning activities and learning objectives.
Review the media program in this week’s Learning Resources to examine effective approaches to writing meaningful, measurable learning objectives.
Review the following scenarios and select the one scenario that would apply most directly to your Discussion group setting.
A: Home Care or Public Health Agency
You are a home care nurse in a public health setting and are developing a learning experience for new staff nurses on providing wound care education to their patient population.
B: College or University
You are a nursing faculty member at a university and are developing a new course for an introduction to medical-surgical nursing.
C: Medical/Health Center
You are a diabetes educator in a hospital and are developing a learning experience for newly diagnosed diabetic adult patients who need to understand their insulin needs and how to handle an insulin syringe.
D: Other Setting (Clinic, etc.)
You are a nurse for an outpatient clinic and are developing a learning experience for patients receiving the flu vaccine.
To guide your development of your Discussion post, consider the following questions:
What is the overarching learning need illustrated in the scenario? How could this overarching need be expressed in one or more learning outcomes?
What learning needs to be addressed in order to achieve those outcomes?
What meaningful learning objectives could you develop to represent the learning needs you have identified?
How could you use the learning objectives to create an educational, learner-centered activity designed to meet the objectives?
How can you use the learning objectives to measure whether learning has taken place?
Using your answers to the previous questions, for your scenario, develop two learning outcomes, two learning objectives aligned to those outcomes, and a learning activity keyed to the objectives applicable to the scenario.
Posting Directions: When creating your post, use the title: “Learning activity for Scenario _____.”
B
Week 8 course project
COURSE PROJECT PART 3: CURRICULUM DESIGN
Since Weeks 6 and 7, you have been working on Part 3 of your Course Project. For this week, you will continue your work and finalize your Part 3: Curriculum Design for submission.
Over the past two weeks, you have explored more about curriculum design, learning outcomes, and learning objectives. Applying knowledge you have gained, you have been working to develop the big picture of your plan of study for the curriculum you are designing for your focus setting, as well as the separate courses or learning experiences that would comprise it. As you continue working to finalize Part 3 of your Course Project this week, consider how you plan to scaffold your lesson sessions toward one or more of the end-of-program outcomes, and how the learning in each session supports those outcomes.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Review Chapter 10, “Designing Courses and Learning Experiences,” in the Billings and Halstead text. Examine the two types of curriculum patterns that nurse educators commonly use to design curriculum. Which pattern, blocking or threading, would be most appropriate for your setting?
Review Chapter 5 of Keating and DeBoor and consider how to use scaffolding in your Part 3 Module Assignment.
Reflect on the following questions:
How can you design your program to best meet the needs of your learners?
How might your curriculum design impact learner progress toward end-of-program outcomes?
Ideally, how many courses or distinct learning experiences would you include in your program?
In what sequence, or order, would you place these sessions?
Continue working on your Part 3, Curriculum Design. Refer to the “Part 3 Planning Guide: Curriculum Design [your chosen setting],” as needed, for support in completing the Assignment.
ASSIGNMENT:
Finalize your Part 3: Curriculum Design for submission.
Reminder: The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The Sample Paper provided at the Walden Writing Center provides an example of those required elements (available at http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/57.htmLinks to an external site.). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
Week 9 discussion
THREE LEVELS OF EVALUATION
An integral part of program design and development is ensuring that outcomes and objectives are achieved. For the nurse educator, this element of program development supports both creating a program of value and building in a means of measuring that value through evaluation strategies tied to outcomes and objectives. For the learner, meeting the given outcomes and objectives generally yields increased knowledge and skills, which confirm that learning has, indeed, occurred. Yet when evaluation indicates that outcomes and objectives are not met, all is far from lost. Rather, the nurse educator can then retrace the development process to decide how to improve a program and its learning experiences, in order to deliver information in a more effective way.
In this Discussion, you will analyze the purpose of evaluation at the learner level and develop an evaluation based on the learning objectives and learning outcomes that you wrote for the Discussion in Week 7 of Module 3. In the process, consider how developing your evaluation strategy might help create a stronger learning experience.
Note: Remember that your Instructor assigned you to a specific Discussion Group: A, B, C, or D in Week 2. You will remain in the same group and respond from the perspective of your Discussion group setting.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Review the media program related to “Curriculum Evaluation” in this week’s Learning Resources and consider the importance of the three levels of evaluation that impact learning.
Review the learning activity you developed for the Week 7 Discussion, including the learning outcomes and learning objectives that you developed and any recommended revisions from colleagues.
Consider types of evaluation at the learner level that would match that activity and your original or revised objectives and learning outcomes.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 9
In your Group Discussion area, post the following:
Explain the purpose of evaluation and the basic concepts and forms of evaluation at the learner level.
Based on your Week 7 Discussion learning activity, create an evaluation appropriate for your Discussion group setting that matches the level of the objectives and learning outcomes and domains of learning.
Use the Learning Resources and/or the best available evidence from current literature to support your post.
Week 10 discussion
EVALUATION METHODS OF CLINICAL SITUATIONS
Last week, your focus was evaluation and strategies at the learner level. This week, you will consider the purpose of evaluation and set of strategies for the course or learning experience level. These include conceptual models like the Structure, Process, and Outcome model for healthcare, and the Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) educational model. As you examine these and other evaluation methods, reflect on how outcomes and objectives continue to play a strategic role in the evaluation process, whether at the learner or course/learning experience level.
In this Discussion, you will consider course/learning experience level learning outcomes within each domain of learning and explain which course/learning experience level evaluation method or strategy would be most appropriate. You will also keep in mind that different Discussion groups and settings would impact the methods you choose.
Note: Remember that your Instructor assigned you to a specific Discussion Group A, B, C, or D in Week 2. You will remain in the same group and respond from the perspective of your Discussion group setting.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Based on your Discussion group setting, consider a professional practice scenario in that setting for which you could develop end-of-course/learning experience outcomes.
Develop one course/learning experience level learning outcome from each domain of learning, and use higher Bloom’s levels of learning (i.e., application level or above).
Provide a type of evaluation method to be used for each course/learning experience level learning outcome.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 10
In your Group Discussion area, post the following:
Briefly describe your practice scenario for the Discussion group setting and the needed learning.
Describe your course/learning experience level learning outcome from each domain and explain the type of evaluation method.
Explain why course/learning experience level evaluation methods might vary based on your Discussion group setting.
Explain how course/learning experience level methods might vary based on the healthcare setting.
Use the Learning Resources and/or the best available evidence from current literature to support your post.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
Week 11 discussion
PROGRAM AND CURRICULUM EVALUATION MODELS
Program-level evaluation offers an opportunity to examine an entire program as a whole and make revisions to make it more effective. This is accomplished by collecting data from multiple sources and analyzing the program through different lenses. For example, at the program level, it is important to assess the alignment of courses or learning experiences to overarching outcomes. It is also important to look at the program broadly and assess how well the content fits together in a scaffolded format.
In this Discussion, you will compare curriculum and evaluation models and explain how these vary depending on the setting under evaluation.
In approaching this last Discussion, consider that you have now spent 10 weeks in the Discussion group setting that you were assigned for this course. Even as you applied the curriculum development process to the setting you selected for your Course Project, you have also gained experience with a different setting through your Discussions. Reflect on these two different settings and the preparation that each has provided for you as a nurse educator.
Note: Remember that your Instructor assigned you to a specific Discussion Group: A, B, C, or D in Week 2. You will remain in the same group and respond from the perspective of your Discussion group setting.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
WEEKLY RESOURCES
TO PREPARE:
Review the Learning Resources related to program evaluation and curriculum evaluation.
With your Discussion group setting in mind, consider different models of program evaluation and curriculum evaluation.
Finally, consider which one program model and one curriculum model you would choose to compare.
BY DAY 3 OF WEEK 11
In your Group Discussion area, post the following:
Describe one program evaluation model and one curriculum evaluation model and explain the significance of the similarities and differences between the models.
Based on your Course Project setting and your group Discussion setting, explain your conclusions about how the setting affects choice of program and curriculum evaluation models.
Use the Learning Resources and/or the best available evidence from current literature to support your post.