Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Instructional Technology Program

Gina M. Mason, M.Ed. Candidate PORTFOLIO

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IT 510

Gina Mason
IT510
Design Doc: Course Design

Problem Identification

In 2005, a new law was passed that required all Respiratory Care Practitioners (RCPs) to obtain and keep current a license from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in order to practice Respiratory Care.  The initial license was valid for two years.  The profession is in renewal and all tasks must be completed by October 31, 2007.  There are several requirements for renewal, which include payment of a license fee and providing proof of completion of 24 continuing education units (CEUs). 
As the deadline draws near, I have had increasing numbers of calls from RCPs unfamiliar with the law and needing direction.  My background as their past supervisor/educator and current position with the Illinois Society for Respiratory Care allows staff to trust my interpretation of the law.  However, I would prefer that, in a matter as critical as this, the staff 1) understand the content of the Illinois Respiratory Care Practice Act, 2) apply it to their own professional needs and 3) become knowledgeable about their licensure law. My gut feeling is that many RCPs in Illinois are in the same situation as my staff. 
I have decided to use this problem as my first design plan for IT 510. I would like to design an informative course for all RCPs in Illinois. To make this instruction meaningful and accessible, I plan to first conduct a needs assessment to obtain data and determine current problems and critical needs.  I have ready access to a variety of RCPs in my institution and additional RCPs via professional networks that will participate in the needs assessment process.  A goal analysis will then be completed to determine goals for the course.

Needs Assessment

Normative Needs: This type of assessment is not indicated for the problem.

Comparative Needs: This type of assessment is not indicated for the problem.

Felt Needs: I developed a quick 10-item questionnaire for staff to complete.  This covered many of the issues that I thought were pertinent to the problem.  The questionnaire was sent to the 7 staff members working in my institution on one particular day.  They had a variety of experience levels and job responsibilities.  The response rate was 71%.  Although the questions were in a yes/no format, there was ample space for comments.  The data indicated that overwhelming majority (80%) had not read the text of the law or knew where to find it if needed.  (This information had been posted in 2005 and is still accessible in the department in hard copy form and via a website link.)  100% of respondents did not know what groups were covered under the law or who was represented on the licensure board.  100% of respondents desired an easier way to track and obtain CEUs.  All respondents stated they did not need assistance with license renewal.  Since all respondents indicated a need for an easier way to track CEUs, I will develop a solution within the scope of this project. 

Expressed Needs: Comments received on the questionnaire reveal that many respondents would like to be informed but did not know where to easily access the information.  They do not feel they have time to read a legal document but know they need to know the information.  Respondents also want a system in place to keep track of available and completed CEUs for easy access.

Anticipated Needs: No changes are anticipated over the next few years.

Critical Incident Needs: This may come into effect should staff not know about clauses in the law that will affect their status such as failure to repay student loans or child support.  This problem would cause a critical incident, as they would no longer be able to work in their profession.  Hopefully, an informative course that is properly designed will prevent any critical incidents.

Goal Analysis

General Aims

• Learners will understand the content of the Illinois Respiratory Care Practice Act
• Learners will apply the content to their professional needs.
• Learners will find and complete CEUs.
• Learners will organize their CEUs with the tracking system.

Goals

• Knowledge of the Illinois Respiratory Care Practice Act and Rules
• Where to locate text easily
• Scope of Practice
• Responsibilities of Licensee

• Obtain and manage CEUs
• Types accepted by IL
• Where to find approved CEU programs
• Keeping track of paperwork
• Using CEU tracking system for daily needs
• Using CEU tracking system for application process

Recommendations

Based on the goal analysis, the instruction will consist of two units (Overview of the Illinois Respiratory Care Practice Act and CEU Management.) The development of a CEU tracking system will be a separate but integral component.  Learners will need orientation to this system for maximum productivity. 
Learner Analysis

            The target audience is comprised of professional healthcare workers.  I will need to analyze some general characteristics as well as their specific competency level before planning an instructional program.  Since I have worked with this population for many years, I have a good handle on these skills and will be able to list them without extensive research. Most of the learners prefer interactive education to video based instruction.  Most of the learners prefer to work in small groups and therefore, assessment of individual comprehension is difficult when using video or written education.

            General Characteristics

• 50% of potential learners at this site are > 50 years old
• 80% are female
• 95% have some community college level education
• 100% have basic computer skills
• 100% have some interest in learning the information, however many would prefer to have a contact person to simply ask questions as they arise
• 80% work full time; 20% work part time
• 60% have advanced credentials (RRT), 30% basic credentials(CRT)
• The remaining 10% are student workers

Specific Characteristics
The learners must have the following specific characteristics:

• Be computer literate
• Have Internet and Intranet access
• Have self-motivation for completing the instruction
• Have better than average reading skills

Contextual Analysis

            Orienting Context

All staff members that hold and Illinois RCP license will be enrolled but it will not be required for their job.  It will, however, be used as professional development “extra-credit” on their annual evaluations.  This will provide monetary incentives for completion as well as time management and organizational incentives. 

Instructional Context
The learners will be accessing the course via computer during work hours.  There are frequent opportunities for this sort of learning when workload is light.  Since this does not happen every day and frequent emergencies and interruptions are common in this work setting, the instruction will need to be designed as self-paced and easy to stop and start.  The learners will probably not be able to complete all of the education in one sitting.

Transfer Context

The content of this course will be applicable to the learner as long as he/she holds an IL license.  For most of the staff, this will be many years.  The portion of the learning devoted to the understanding and application of the law to their professional needs will be, for the most part, a one time learning opportunity.  Post-learning testing can assess the transfer of knowledge.  The second portion of the learning (CEU tracking system) will be an on-going aide to their management of CEU programs and documentation for license renewal.  One on one support can assess the level of skill acquisition.

Task Analysis

For this section I will concentrate on the goals stated earlier in the document.  Much of the instruction is cognitive.  Remedial instruction in internet skills might need to be used on an individual basis if students do not have basic skills.   I will take the goals and do a topic analysis.

I am acting as my own SME for this project.  I will bring in a couple of knowledgeable staff members to review my analysis once complete.  Since the CEU tracking system is being developed separately and is not ready for analysis, I will not be covering that portion in this analysis.

            Topic Analysis (Observable Outcomes)

            1.   Understand content of IL RC Practice Act
a. location of text (www.isrc.org has easiest link)
b. scope of practice
-who is covered
- what is covered
c. responsibilities of licensee
-professionalism
- student loans, child support, felonies, etc.
-renewal, regulations
2.    Apply content to professional needs
a. Biennial renewal cycle
b. 24 CEUs required
c. renewal fee
d. address and name changes
e. miscellaneous

• Find and complete CEUs

                   a. types accepted
b. where to find programs
c.   how to submit CEUs to state

Instructional Objectives
Now that the task analysis is complete and I have read the text chapters on instructional objectives and sequencing, I can refine my goals and outcomes in to workable objectives for instruction. Each objective is classified according to Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive objectives.

            At the end of this instruction, learners will

• Understand content of IL RC Practice Act (Comprehension)
• Manage content for professional needs (Synthesis)
• Choose and evaluate appropriate CEUs (Evaluation)

Categorizing the content will be helpful when determining the instructional strategies.

Sequencing

The objectives are arranged in the order of importance when I first began this project.  Now, after reading the chapter on sequencing, I see that they are already arranged in a concept-related sequencing manner in that the concepts are arranged in similar groups.  I did decide to keep the CEU section as the last section.  It is the section that most learners are interested in.  The legal information, while very important, is not as interesting to learners until it becomes a critical need.  I will need to study the arrangement further to ensure the sequence is interesting and logically arranged as I begin to explore instructional strategies.

Course Outline

The course will be designed as an independent study course that allows for the learner to stop and start as needed due to changing demands of the workday.  Learners, for the most part, will not complete the entire course in one session.  Therefore, the instruction will be self-paced and contain opportunity for frequent review. 

I have written three broad objectives and broken them down into sub-objectives.  The learning domain, performance content, and instructional strategy were identified for each sub-objective.  I am now ready to detail strategies for each objective.

Objective 1: Understand content of IL RC Practice Act (Comprehension) 

Initial Presentation: Provide a visual step-by-step demonstration of website.  Provide pictures and cues to assist learner in navigation of website.  This will be done with a pdf file and/or printed instruction manual with online learning activities.

Generative Strategy:.  Learner will have opportunity to practice accessing and exploring the website.  Simple exercises will reinforce how to locate information on the website.  Case studies and real-life scenarios will be presented to integrate facts and understanding of new material to learner’s current knowledge. 


Objective 2:  Manage content for professional needs (Synthesis)

Initial Presentation: Present a real-life scenario/case study applicable to the audience.  Provide examples of problems a learner may encounter. 

Generative Strategy:.  Learner will have simulated exercises that mirror the actual procedures being presented.   True/false and what if types of questions will be used to improve retention.


Objective 3:  Choose and evaluate appropriate CEUs (Evaluation)

Initial Presentation: Visual chart will be presented to place potential CEUs into broad categories such as internet, lecture, courses, seminars, etc. This will be done with a pdf file and/or printed instruction manual with online learning activities.

Strategy:.  Learners will have hands on practice finding and evaluating CEUs through structured exercises.  These exercises will be presented in a treasure hunt format.  At the conclusion of the treasure hunt, the learner will have “found” CEUs in a variety of formats leading to the required 24 per renewal cycle.

Preinstructional Strategy

I have chosen to develop the instruction in three separate modules rather than one long unit to give the learner additional flexibility.  There is little overlap of information and I believe each unit can stand on its own without prior knowledge.  Therefore I have chosen to use the pretest strategy at the beginning of each module.  Three to five questions will be developed around the objectives and sub-objectives.  This will simulate the learner’s interest and prepare them for the information about to be presented.  The learner’s prior knowledge is such that either an overview or an advance organizer would be unnecessary information.

Instructional Prototype

Below is one example of the storyboard process used for planning the course content and layout for the CEU module.   The initial course will be in-house only on our e-learning program “NetLearning.”  There will also be a pdf file and/or printed instruction manual available to assist with online learning activities. This will take care of concerns that the links will disrupt the flow of learning.  Once it goes out of house to the state-wide level, I will have to redesign the learning activities so as to avoid the pitfall of the learner leaving the instruction and getting lost in the world wide web during the learning activity.  This will probably be done with a downloadable pdf file.

Prototype Presentation

Evaluation Plan

Since this course is not required but for professional development purposes, no formal testing of the participants is required.

Formative Evaluation:  I plan to have a two step formative phase.  First, a small group of learners (5 to 10) from the target audience will take this course and complete a survey.  From the survey I can tweak the problem areas and address any concerns or suggestions.  I will then release the course to the remaining (15 to 20) in-house learners and follow up their instruction with another survey to continue the feedback process.  These phases will be complete before introducing the program to a state-wide audience. 

Summative Evaluation:  Learners will have activities along the way.  The learning activities will not be part of the assessment and evaluation process.  At the end of the course, there will be a short quiz to assess learning.  There will also be questions to assess the quality of instruction, usefulness and timing of instruction, and reactions to the program.

Confirmative Evaluation:  Once the program goes to a state wide level on the isrc.org website, I am not certain I can keep the quiz part of the course.  At the very least, I will design a post-learning questionnaire with the webmaster to gain feedback from a wider audience.  I will also get feedback from the ISRC board of directors during a regularly scheduled face to face meeting to decide how the instruction is meeting their needs as employers and educators in the field. 

Page last updated Sept. 5, 2009

© 2009 Gina M Mason

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville