Problem -
With the value of a higher education being questioned and debated, colleges and universities must find a way to enhance teaching and learning and produce well-rounded graduates who are prepared for life's work. However, today's typical student is forcing us to change our approach to teaching and learning. Increasingly, the demographics of our student population is shifting away from the traditionally aged students, between 18-22, to a population who are working toward their Bachelor's degrees at age 30, 40 or 50. The term non-traditional applies to more than age, as well. Diversity of culture, experience, and language is also impacting higher education trends. Coupled with this rise of diversity among our student population is the concomitant rise of online education. These two factors raise significant problems for both students and educators. More and more students of non-traditional age and background are arriving at College without having had the same access to and training with technology as their fellow students have.
How can we support these students who are new to online education and better prepare them for the competitive workforce? The Nursing program at Simmons College is currently working to address this problem through a grant-funded program to identify the needs of their students in regards to technology.
One of the goals of this project is to train non-traditional students quickly and have them comfortably using the device on their own. Because the students have limited time to spend learning the technology, we need to be as efficient as possible and make the learning applicable to both the academic and future professional careers.
Proposal -
Working with the department of Academic Technology at Simmons College, Nursing faculty have developed a program called Bridging the Digital Divide that provides minority women in Nursing with technology and training. Participants of the study identify themselves as ALANA (African, Latino, Asian, Native American) with most being of non-traditional age who are currently working towards their Bachelor's of Nursing degree. These women will be provided an iPod Touch to be used throughout their Nursing program. These iPods will come equipped with software that will benefit their class experience. One use of these devices that we expect will be the most popular will be during their clinical practices where they get to actually work with patients. During that time, the students are expected to know the drugs and the symptoms of these patients. We expect that the students will have the ability to stay more organized with the assistance of the iPod Touch.
Training Plan -
As of June 2011, the support plan for these students is designed to be a combination of hand-on training and resources for these students to access. The students will be given several options of face-to-face training within the first few weeks of the semester. With about 45 participants, we expect to conduct 10-15 training sessions of varying skill levels. These groups will be about 4-5 students. In addition to the trainings, we will have access to FaceTime, a tool that allows face-to-face interaction via the devices. The students will have the chance to connect with a support person or a "super-user" who can direct them with basic instructions. Finally, the students will have access to video tutorials that are designed specifically for the device. Since every student will have the same device and the same software, we expect that 10-15 short training videos will help them solve any basic problems they might experience. Surveys and focus groups will track the development of student literacies and assess the effectiveness of the training program.
Future outcomes-
The goal of this project is to be able to identify the problems these learners face when using technology and how we, as educators, can address those barriers. While this project will not solve all the problems, it is hoped that we may work to develop a structure to support these students. This poster will demonstrate the goals of Bridging the Digital Divide and ideas for supporting non-traditional students in a digital world. The poster will explain our process of training these students and the challenges and benefits to the program. Participants can expect to come away from this session knowing more about who their non-traditional students are and how they learn with technology. While no one solution will solve the problem, we hope to have participants think of their non-traditional students in a different way.
