Kathryn Trotter, Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Nursing
Project Description
As part of the CIT’S Spring 2006 Fellows program designed for faculty teaching large classes, Kathryn Trotter particularly searched for ways to keep learning as interactive as possible in her classes. By working to provide multiple ways to learn the content (visual, audio, progressive recall, case scenarios with discussion threading), she hoped her students would all complete the course with adequate content knowledge to both become practicing clinicians in women’s and men’s reproductive health, as well as pass their certification exam.
In the program, Trotter and the other Fellows were introduced to a wide range of methods to enhance student learning and engagement in large courses including new approaches to lectures and effective use of student feedback and groups. She used individual blogs to allow the students to write their weekly personal clinical journal. This served the requirement to keep a log, and also allowed the students and the instructor to read the blogs, and offer support and clarification to the individuals. The students liked the variety of perspectives as well as clinical case scenarios provided by the blogs.
In the blogs, the students discussed how they felt, how they measured their own progress, what they liked and didn’t like, without being graded. Trotter was able to pick up on site issues, such as preceptor difficulties, and types of patients seen, which her School uses to determine appropriate sites to use in future.
Trotter also found it simple and helpful to use Blackboard’s survey tool to gather feedback about the value of students’ on-campus experiences in this distance education course.
Trotter reported that the methods she explored were successful in helping her interact with her students, engaging her students, and giving them a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
Project start date: 1/2006
Funding awarded: $ 1,250
Additional Information
A poster presented by Trotter at the CIT Showcase 2006