By Kathleen G. Charters, PhD, RN
8th Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks, November 8-10, 2002, Orlando, Florida. Theme: “The Power of Online Learning: The Faculty Experience.”
Working in a group is a core skill for Nursing Informatics students. Building or buying an enterprise-wide multi-disciplinary Information System involves information technology project management, systems analysis and design, and database development. Project management, by definition, involves working with groups. A group accomplishes information system analysis, design and implementation. Enterprise level database design and development is a group activity. The skills of information technology project management, systems analysis and design, and database development are prerequisites for developing a request for proposal (RFP). No one individual has all the knowledge and skills necessary to define the requirements for an enterprise-wide multi-disciplinary information system. Even if this could be done by one individual, it would not serve an organization well to have a single point of view for creating a vision of how information technology can best support the delivery of healthcare. Therefore, to make Nursing Informatics graduate level curriculum available in an asynchronous learning network, a group project must be an integral part of the learning environment.
There is little guidance available to indicate the best way to include a group project as part of an asynchronous learning network. Review of the literature shows a paucity of research studies evaluating the quality of Web-based courses, let alone the effectiveness of a particular approach to group projects in a Web-based course. Since the skill of participating in a task group is essential for students in a Nursing Informatics program of study, evaluation of the effectiveness of doing a group project as a course requirement in a Web-based Nursing Informatics course is essential. The course selected for evaluation is Concepts of Nursing Informatics, which requires a group project of developing a RFP. All communication about the project was done in Blackboard™ in the group’s Discussion Forum.
The challenges in developing and teaching a group project in an asynchronous learning network environment include: a) getting students to engage early in the semester, b) providing group feedback at regular intervals, c) providing a way for groups to present their findings and recommendations, and d) creating an environment where students must participate in the group in order to succeed in the course. Strategies used to meet these challenges include: a) a syllabus that makes clear the requirement to participate in the group and how group participation will be evaluated, b) setting and enforcing a deadline for engaging with the group, c) monitoring participation, and d) allowing group members to evaluate one another’s’ participation in the group.
To evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies the text of the group iscussion forum was scrubbed to remove individual identifying information (names were replaced by alias’) and the text was analyzed in Ethnograph ™. The analysis in consists of identifying group member roles and social networks to establish the group task processes, and analysis of verbs and sentence structure for evidence of “critical-thinking.” The statistical analysis provided by Blackboard™ will be used to provide a) total number of accesses per area, b) number of accesses over time, c) user accesses per hour of the day, d) user accesses per day of the week, and e) total accesses by user. This data will be broken out by group membership. The students’ evaluation of one another’s’ participation and the quality of the final product, the RFP, will be compared with the other findings.