Engaging MS Students as Nurse Educators: Flipping the Online Classroom

The Advanced Pharmacological Nursing Practice course was developed by faculty and the instructional designer specifically for the Master of Science nurse educator student. Hessler’s Intentional Instruction Model (2015) was employed to flip the nursing classroom. The model components utilized learning objectives, partnering with students, off-load content, in-class activities, and evaluation. Teaching strategies of team-based learning, role playing, case study development, discussions, and reflection are also applied. These strategies engage students at a higher level of learning taxonomy through the promotion of enhanced communication, cooperative team work, and improved problem solving skills.

Engaging the flipped classroom concept provides students with the opportunity to assume the role of educator within the online learning management system, Moodlerooms Joule. Faculty assumes the role of facilitator and partners with students to guide learning, foster changes in the educational experience, and encourage collegiality (Hessler, 2015). Students’ work in groups with classmates to choose an illness of interest, develop learning objectives, and formulate a problem-based case study with an advanced pharmacology focus.

The off-load content uses the scaffolding technique in which students incorporate considerations of genetics/genomics, culture, age, lifestyle, and appropriate ethno-pharmacological treatments to a chosen illness. Students obtain information from the assigned textbook readings, current literature, respected resources, and their real-world working experiences (Shin & Kim, 2013). The in-class activities require each team to assimilate and apply material gathered by presenting the case study, facilitating robust discussions, and evaluating peer participation according to a provided rubric. Students then are asked to reflect on their experience as an educator and evaluate their future learning needs.

The purpose of this course and use of these specific teaching strategies is to encourage clinical problem-solving and promote student’s critical thinking skills through the use of active learning activities. This allows the students to make their own determinations of what information is important to incorporate into practice from the case scenarios. It also provides students with the opportunity to work collaboratively in a creative and self-directed environment. Through self-evaluation, students determine where further study is needed (Popil, 2011).