Purpose: This poster session highlights the project and leadership journey of an Experienced Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy (ENFLA) Scholar in developing electronic resources and adapting/ adopting Canvas LMS in one of the fastest growing university in the Philippines. Project outcomes and the ‘leading’ and ‘learning’ stories are showcased capturing the various changes, challenges, chances and choices accompanying educational leadership.
Methods:A SWOT analysis wasconducted by the Scholar and his team to assess factors that may influence the choice of appropriate technologies and may impact project implementation within the university. The SWOT results provided necessary inputs for program diagnosis and planning. Strategic planning and a development plan wereemployed in developing the one-year Electronic Learning Resources Implementation Roadmap which details the short, medium and long-term goals, and deliverables and task champions of the project. The roadmap was shared and communicated to the program stakeholders for verification and affirmation. Outcomes were crafted to identify outputs in three (3) key result areas namely: (1) Technology/Technical, (2) Procedural, (3) and Human Resources. First, technology/technical outcomes refer to results on the improvement of the technology access and quality of internet connection. With the assistance from the Information Technology (IT) department, an increased bandwidth and wireless-fidelity hotspots were projected. Second, procedural outputs refer to the development of Standard Operating Procedures that will serve as the process framework work for electronic resource development. It includes step-by-step procedures and guidelines for the faculty in developing effective electronic learning content. The Scholar set a goal of achieving 100% upload of nursing courses and 100% development of ‘parent courses’ to be offered initially in the first semester of the academic year 2019-2020. Finally, human resources key result area pertains to the development and capacitation of the team and individuals who will work on the project. These outputs envisioned to create a department that will spearhead the project for sustainability and long-term implementation. The Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition (SAMR) Model and the Universal Theory of Adoption and Use of Technology (UTAUT) provided the theoretical anchors for project success. Leadership and Management input from the ENFLA sessions including Scholar’s Mentor and Faculty Advisor were incorporated in refining and refocusing project and leadership development.
Results:Technology infrastructure (e.g. internet connection, devices) in the university were improved and expanded to accommodate the requirements of the learning resource development and implementation. Also, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were developed to serve as guide in various aspects of the project. A proposal was also sent to the university administrators to establish the Educational Learning and Innovation Technology for Enhancement (ELITE) Center – the department that will lead educational technology integration. Theuniversity administrators approved the creation of the ELITE Center and implementation of the Electronic Learning Resources Implementation Roadmap. A total of eight human resource capacity-building sessions with the assistance of the LMS providers were held to train the project administrators, course developers, faculty and technical staff. As a result, courses in the Philippine Bachelor of Science in Nursing Curriculum were successfully registered and loaded into the system. Electronic learning resources or ‘parent courses’ (eBooks, eCourses) for blending learning of course offerings in the upcoming first semester of school year 2019-2020 (June-October) have been successfully created and loaded to the system. Two (2) studies were also produced for evidence-based practice and to understand the dynamics of electronic learning resources and its adoption to the university. These studies were translated into process improvement (effective technology adoption) and policy (guidelines in adaption). Overall, the Scholar’s leadership journey can be described in fourthemes, namely: (1) Searching, (2) Engaging, (3) Trialing and (4) Shaping experiences.Interestingly throughout the course of the leadership project, the Scholar encountered changes and challenges in his status as a leader with his interaction with peers, superiors and administrators. Appreciation of proactive listening and reaching-out to individual faculty were two leadership skills enhanced during the ENFLA. An online group was created to facilitate communication with the team, and team building activities were successfully held. Humor is valuable to keep the team spirit while working on project deliverables. The Scholar had to learn how to balance positive and negative outcomes in order to attain a win-win solution for project success. The support of the university administrators was a key factor in sustaining program resources. The Scholar, who was overwhelmed with the wealth of task, created monthly schedules to balance work-life-family-health aspects. He was able to acknowledge both his limitations and strengths through reflections and self-discovery.
Conclusion: Implementing electronic web-based learning resources in developing countries is feasible through effective planning and use of an evidenced-based and theoretical-sound approach. Though there are challenges in ‘leading and learning’ aspect of the project, ENFLA Sessions and Mentor/Faculty interactions provided meaningful learning activities. The Triad Model of the ExperiencedNurse Faculty Leadership Academy is an effective tool and experience to shape leadership skills of nurse educators.