Abstract
The growing demand for baccalaureate prepared health care professionals has resulted in increasing numbers of associate prepared health care workers seeking to obtain a baccalaureate in a health related field. Returning students are usually required to fit a class schedule between work and family responsibilities. Many students are also geographically distant from a four-year university, and thus do not have easy access to a baccalaureate education. Providing asynchronous course work via technology enables these individuals to further their education on their own time and in their own community. This proposal is to request funding to begin the course development necessary to provide the Health Services baccalaureate degree program via distance technology. The course to be developed is HP411 Health Care systems Management, one of the required core courses in the Health Services degree program. It will be offered as an Internet delivered course with occasional supplemental IHETS class sessions. Total projected expenses are $21,492.83, with $9508.91 coming from the University of Southern Indiana. A grant of $11,983.92 is requested from IHETS/IPSE Course Development Grant Program.
Need for the Program
In recent years health care reform has created a demand for an increasing number of baccalaureate prepared health care professionals who can effectively meet the practice challenges of a complex health care environment. Many health care professionals, however, receive their initial educational preparation in clinically based programs that only offer a discipline-specific associate degree. Although further educational advancement in their specific discipline is not available, these health care providers are finding it desirable to develop additional competence in such areas as management and communication skills, information technology, and financial systems. Developing these skills and others enables health care workers to stay abreast of the changes occurring in health care. To meet the critical work force need of additional baccalaureate prepared health care workers and to meet the professional development needs of these health care workers, the University of Southern Indiana School of Nursing and Health Professions offers a baccalaureate degree in Health Services.
The Health Services baccalaureate completion program provides health care workers who hold associate degrees in a variety of health professions with the opportunity to receive a baccalaureate degree in a health care related field that will enable them to increase their knowledge base and advance their career. Graduates from this program are prepared for staff support and entry level management positions in various health care systems including acute care facilities, managed care, extended care, home care, ambulatory care, or medical office settings. In the last two years, the Health Services baccalaureate degree program has experienced a 50% increase in enrollment, reflecting the growing awareness among health care professionals of the need for additional educational preparation.
This increasing interest in the baccalaureate Health Services degree program has been accompanied by an increased number of requests for the distance delivery of the courses required by the major, especially from students located throughout southwestern Indiana. Many students are geographically distant from a comprehensive, four-year university and do not have easy access to baccalaureate education. Furthermore, most students who are interested in the Health Services degree program are employed full-time in their field, with work schedules that demand multiple shift and weekend work commitments and responsibilities. Because of their work and family responsibilities, these students are ideally suited for asynchronous learning opportunities. Providing asynchronous course work via technology would enable individuals to further their education on their own time and in their own community, decreasing the amount of time necessary to travel to campus.
In response to the increased interest in distance education, plans for distance delivery of the Health Services degree program have been under development during the past year. In the fall of 1997, the Dean of the USI School of Nursing and Health Professions and the Program Director of the USI Health Services degree program met with administrators of Vincennes University to discuss the development of a distance education program that would provide the Health Services baccalaureate degree to associate degree graduates of their institution. Because of the expressed need for the program, a decision was made at that time to proceed with the development of the major’s required courses that would be delivered via distance education. There are no other Health Services degree programs offered via distance education in the state of Indiana, so the distance delivery of this major would provide educational mobility opportunities to health care workers throughout the state. Our estimate of enrollment in the HP411 Health Care Systems Management distance learning course is 25 students in both the fall and spring semesters. Marketing brochures for the Health Services completion program and distance learning option are being developed. These brochures will be mailed to associate degree health care graduates and health care workers at various health care facilities.
The purpose of this proposal is to request funding to begin the course development necessary to provide the Health Services degree program via distance technology. Specifically, funds are requested to develop the course, HP411 Health Care Systems Management, for first-time delivery as an Internet delivered course. HP411 Health Care Systems Management is one of the required core courses for the Health Services baccalaureate degree program and will be offered as an Internet delivered course with supplemental IHETS class sessions in the fall of 1998. The funding of this proposal to develop HP 411 Health Care Systems Management for Internet delivery would also result in the development of an instructional design plan which would be used as a template in the future development of other required courses in the Health Services major for Internet delivery. Additional courses are to be developed for Internet delivery in the spring of 1999.
Institution’s Commitment to the Project and Capacity to Complete
The faculty and staff of the School of Nursing and Health Professions have previous experience in the development of courses which use computer mediated instruction and other technology. Within the last year and a half, seven nursing courses in the University of Southern Indiana’s RN-baccalaureate completion program have been redesigned for Internet delivery with occasional use of IHETS conferencing for class meetings. These courses were implemented in spring and fall of 1997, resulting in the RN-BSN completion program being totally available through distance education. The experience gained as a result of developing the RN-BSN completion program for distance education delivery will be useful in the development of the Health Services program distance learning courses. The successful implementation of this distance learning initiative in the nursing program has also demonstrated that the University of Southern Indiana has the computer technology and distance learning staff expertise to support these endeavors. A letter of support for this project from the Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Professions is included in the appendix of this proposal. This letter further addresses the need for providing the Health Services major via distance education and how the funds requested would be used to facilitate the development not only the course identified within this proposal for distance delivery, but the delivery of other required courses in the major as well.
Course Development Plan
Instructional Design Plan. The Internet has been chosen as the primary method of course delivery to be supplemented by occasional use of IHETS class sessions. The Internet has been chosen for two reasons. First of all, use of the Internet will provide learners with the flexibility of asynchronous learning in their own time and place. Secondly, the Internet is known to be a rich source of information relating to the course content and will be a valuable supplement to the course text. In addition to the Internet, other forms of computer-mediated instruction will be used. Computer conferencing software will be used to allow for on-line discussion of course content on a weekly basis and email communication will be used to foster individual communication between faculty and students. The computer conferencing software package, Webboard 2.0, has been used the past two semesters in other Internet courses offered within the School of Nursing and Health Professions, and evaluation has indicated that it is an effective means of fostering on-line course discussion. The occasional use of IHETS conferencing at approximately four-week intervals throughout the course will provide students with the opportunity to interact with each other and the instructor in "real-time". Previous evaluation of Internet-based courses has indicated that while students value the flexibility and learning independence the Internet offers them in their education, they continue to also value select opportunities for personal interaction among peers and faculty. Meeting four times over the course of the semester will provide students with an effective blend of technology-supported instruction and classroom interaction.
The instructional design of the course will include the development of weekly learning modules that will focus on key course concepts. Each learning module will consist of reading assignments, links to other Internet sites as appropriate, the identification of study questions to guide student learning, and interactive learning activities that will require application of the content. Questions that will require students to participate in weekly on-line discussion through the use of the computer conferencing software will also be developed.
Course Evaluation Plan. Formative evaluation of the course will be accomplished through the use of an evaluation tool previously developed by faculty in the School of Nursing and Health Professions for use in evaluating the quality of instruction in Internet-delivered courses. This tool provides faculty with student feedback regarding the effective use of technology in the course, the identification of learning activities that have been most helpful to developing an understanding of the course content, and identification of any potential modifications to course delivery that would better facilitate student learning.
The tool will be administered at midterm allowing feedback from the tool to be used by faculty to make alterations in course delivery as appropriate. Since increasing familiarity with the technology may change student perceptions regarding the effectiveness of Internet instruction over the course of time, the tool will be re-administered at the end of the course as a part of the summative evaluation of the course. Learning outcomes will also be compared to previous outcomes of students who took the course in the traditional classroom setting.
Faculty involved in the development and implementation of the course will be willing to share their experiences and evaluation feedback with other faculty. This will be accomplished through conference presentations and publication.
Plans for Peer Review and Interinstitutional Acceptance
The Health Services baccalaureate completion program at the University of Southern Indiana was developed to provide associate degree graduates in the health professions with an opportunity to broaden their education and advance their careers in the health care field. The courses that comprise the major were designed to be applicable to individuals from a wide variety of health care backgrounds; thus the major can meet the educational needs of a large population of health care workers across Indiana. The provision of a baccalaureate completion program for this population of learners has been supported by the State’s two -year institutions. As one example of the acceptance of this program by other institutions, an articulation agreement is being developed with Vincennes University for the University of Southern Indiana to accept up to 64 hours of transfer credit for graduates of Vincennes University’s numerous associate degree health care programs who wish to enroll in the Health Services major. This emphasis on maximum transferability of credits, along with increasing the accessibility of the major’s courses through distance learning will greatly increase the educational mobility options available to associate degree health care workers in Indiana. To further increase the educational mobility options of students, the faculty member responsible for the course, HP 411 Health Care Systems Management, is willing to submit the course for peer review following the initial offering of the course on the Internet. Feedback received from the peer review process will be used to further revise and develop the course.
Project Schedule for Development of HP411 Health Care Systems Management
March 1, 1998 - June 1, 1998 --Instructional design plan of course
to be developed by faculty
May/June, 1998 --Faculty participation in the Interactive
Distance Learning Workshop sponsored by
the Indiana University Center for Excellence
in Education, Bloomington
June 1, 1998 - July 31, 1998 --Design and development of course Web pages
August 1, 1998 - August 14, 1998 --Final review of Internet course materials
including peer review and feedback
August 17, 1998 - August 24, 1998 --Technology orientation sessions offered to
students enrolling in HP 411
Week of August 24, 1998 --Classes begin
Week of October 12, 1998 --Midterm evaluation of course design and delivery
Week of December 7, 1998 --Classes end. Summative evaluation of course
Key Course Development Personnel
Carol Kent Hermes, M.A. Ed., RN – Program Director of the Health Services Degree Program. Ms. Hermes will be the faculty member responsible for development of HP 411 Health Care Systems Management for Internet delivery. Her C.V. is included in the appendix. Ms. Hermes has thirty years experience in health care administration and education, and has taught HP 411 since 1995. She has incorporated Internet learning experiences in another course that she will teach in spring 1998.
Judith A. Halstead, DNS, RN – Dr. Halstead is the Director of the Day Learning Resource Center and Coordinator of Distance Education in the School of Nursing and Health Professions. She has eighteen years of experience in higher education and has experience in developing and teaching courses for Internet delivery. She will assist in the instructional design of the course and supervise the technical and secretarial staff who will support the Internet delivery of HP 411.
Charles Anstett – Experienced with Web page design. Will develop course Web pages for Internet and will provide technical support to students and faculty.
Peggy Mac Millan – Secretary for Continuing and Distance Education in the School of Nursing and
Health Professions. She will provide secretarial support, course editing assistance, and assist in the teaching of Internet orientation sessions offered to students.
