Faculty Professional Development for Health Science Career Programs in a DistanceLearning Lab: Its impact on Student Engagement, Expansion and Retention
A. Jaami Dawan, Ed.D
Darrylinn D. Todd, Ed.D.
Malcolm X College
One of the City Colleges of Chicago
This chapter discusses the successes of Malcolm X College (MXC) and its consortium of
local/regional partners and faculty. Malcolm X College under the leadership of Ghingo
W. Brooks, President, City Colleges of Chicago and its partners received a grant from the
U.S. Department of Labor for a project designed to address the “critical skills shortage”
of healthcare workers in the state of Illinois by increasing capacity and training
opportunities with seven of the College’s 16 health science career programs: Nursing,
Radiography, Surgical Technology, Phlebotomy, Certified Nursing Assistant, Home
Health Aids, and Mortuary Science. The initiative was implemented in three phases.
Phase I
At the onset, the first phase of the grant offered professional development opportunities
for faculty and staff through the University of Illinois’, Illinois Online network (ION). In
the 3 - 8-week Compressed Comprehensive Online Instructor Training (CCOIT) courses,
faculty received an overview of online/blended learning, instructional design and
student assessment. Also, several of the Health Science teaching staff with the assistance
of an instructional designer-lab manager converted twenty-two of their Fall 2011
Blackboard course offerings to blended courses. This “flexible learning” opportunity for
students resulted in them being able to access their course content, anytime, anyplace
and anywhere. The instructional design-lab manager continues to offer ongoing
professional development opportunities for faculty; such as orientations and webinars
designed for the instructional staff to learn Blackboard 9.1 (e.g. grade book, developing
group activities) and Elluminate Live (online collaboration tool).
In addition, faculty learned how to use the Blended Course Instructor Preparation
Checklist (BCIPC), a standardized syllabus template and grading scale within the
Blackboard course shell. The Checklist is a document for faculty to use for organizing
blended courses which will allow them to adhere to health science career programs
“flexible learning” standards. The standard syllabus template is a document that is
designed to ensure that faculty follows District and health science career programs
curriculum standards and providing the correct information to students.
A Blackboard course shell standard was developed for the health science career
programs with a navigational structure, banner, color, and theme that was
representative of the District and college goals (e.g. student centered). The standard
course shell ensured that all health science Blackboard courses had a consistent “look
and feel” which would allow students to easily navigate from one health science
program to another in the Blackboard. Learning Management System (LMS) each time
they enrolled in a health science program’s course.
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Every semester students are given “hands-on” face-to-face orientations on how to use
and work with Blackboard and in some instances, they are offered the opportunity to
participate with webinars, as well.
Phase II
During phase II a preexisting space in the college’s library was renovated and a fullyfunctional “state of the art” distance learning lab was put into operation. The lab
hardware includes:
Table 1
Health Sciences Lab Hardware
Hewitt Packard notebook computers
Mac Book Pro computers (notebooks)
iPads
Smart Boards
Wireless Mic System
Video/Tele Conferencing Equipment
In addition, students will have access to the following health sciences
application software.
Table 2
Health Sciences Lab Application Software
A.D.A.M. Interactive Anatomy Online
iPad2 apps (i.e. Unbound Medicine's Nursing
Central, Pharmacy apps)
There are a number of course activities and instructional strategies that will be used in
the health science career programs courses, for instance, instructors will provide the
students with the following:
They will provide students with iPads that are rich with course content and texts
(apps).
Apply techniques and theory from constructivist and problem-based learning
theory to support student instruction.
Provide prerecorded vodcast and podcast for students to learn difficult and
tricky health science topics.
Connect the nursing simulation lab with the iPad2 and apps.
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Lastly, they will invite subject matter experts that are knowledgeable in
Nursing, Radiography, Surgical Technology, Phlebotomy, Certified Nursing
Assistant, Home Health Aids, and Mortuary Science to discuss current / relevant
health science topics either face-to-face and / or remotely via Elluminate Live,
Skype or employ the video/Tele Conferencing equipment.
Faculty from the Health Science Career Programs will bring students to work in the lab
on online course assignments and to participate in “real time” guest lectures and clinical
demonstrations remotely. Students will have access to the equipment and software
mentioned above.
Phase III
The third and final phase of this grant, involves the development of several tools to use
to determine the effectiveness of the grant. In collaboration with the Health Science
Careers faculty, the instructional designer will develop a faculty evaluation tool. After
the tool has been created and tested, the instructional designer will collect faculty data
and summarize evaluate the Health Science Careers faculty member and the
effectiveness of their blended learning course. The results of the faculty evaluation tool
will help improve instruction and student retention.
The following metrics will be obtained at the completion of the semester for the
following areas; preparation for employment, program of study, workforce
development, occupational demand and program goals. The concept of areas and
program goals were modified and taken from the Sparks & Waits (2011) report.
Preparation for employment:
How satisfied are Illinois employers with graduates from the Health Science Career
Programs? (Employers Surveyed)
Program of study:
Are Health Science Career Programs students choosing programs and majors that lead
to high-demand occupations? (Students Surveyed and Department of Labor)
Are the Health Science Career Programs producing graduates to fill high-demand and
high-paying jobs? (Students Surveyed and Department of Labor statistics))
Workforce Development:
How are the Health Science Career Programs meeting the needs in customized and
contract training? (Employers Surveyed)
How is the Health Science Career Programs meeting the needs of employers?
(Employers Surveyed)
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How are the Health Science Career Programs meeting the workforce training needs of
employers in the state and throughout the country? (Employers Surveyed)
Occupational Demand:
Are Health Science Career Programs producing graduates to fill high-demand and highpaying jobs? (Students and employers Surveyed and Department of Labor statistics))
Program Goals:
1. Increase the number of potential Health Science Career Programs students who take
college-level courses in science and math by at least 2 percent, compared to fiscal 2010.
2. Increase student enrollment in the Health Science Career Programs by at least 2
percent compared to fiscal 2010.
3. Increase the number of Health Science Career Programs students taking blended
courses or the number of blended courses offered by at least 10 percent, compared to
fiscal 2010.
4. Reduce the “critical skills shortage” for the state of Illinois by providing training
opportunities and increasing capacity by 2 percent.
5. Help students to graduate and attend 4-year colleges/universities or attain jobs of
economic value by 2 percent.
6. Expand the use of “awards of excellence” or other initiatives that reward faculty,
course, or staff for innovations designed to advance excellence and efficiency by at least
10 percent compared to calendar year 2010.
7. Increase student retention in the Health Science Career Programs by at least 2 percent
compared to fiscal 2010.
This data driven process will be used for tracking student and program success. Also,
other instruments will be designed and used for scheduling and evaluating the distancelearning lab.
Keywords: faculty professional development: health science: career programs: distance
learning: occupations: student engagement: student expansion: student retention:
distance learning lab: jobs economic value
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