Virtual health assessment: an impossible task?

How does one TEACH A HANDS-ON SKILL SET LIKE HEALTH ASSESSMENT WITHOUT HAVING THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUT HANDS ON? That was the question I asked myself when I was invited to teach health assessment as an online/virtual course for RN-BSN students. This was not a new course, but, for the first time, students were not required to visit the campus to take part in laboratory sessions. I was eager for the challenge. My success can be attributed to a number of factors, most notably the support I received from the university. Class size was limited to 24 in contrast to the 50 or more students in face-to-face classes. The university provides introduction/orientation classes for faculty as well as technological support via a Help Desk. The computer platform system we used to provide structure for the management of course content and communication, Angel[R] (now part of Blackboard), also provides online tutorials and technical support. As I put together "Health Assessment: Basis for Professional Practice," I made use of Zsohar and Smith's (2008) guidelines for success in the virtual classroom. They recommend actively involving students in the course; keeping requirements in sync with the course credits; clear deadlines for assignments, quizzes/exams, and discussion postings; and using instructional rubrics for grading each component of the course for which students receive credit. All of these suggestions proved valuable. Most important, Zsohar and Smith stress that material must be thoughtfully presented with a clear progression. The content should be diverse, with lectures, readings, and interactive assignments that engage students in their own learning (Short, 2000). In addition, students demand control over the conditions of learning (Jeffries, 2005) and flexibility is paramount. The Process The first step in designing the virtual course was to review the traditional course and see how components could be modified to the virtual environment. The traditional course encompasses two and one-half hours of didactic content weekly, plus 22.5 hours of lab over the duration of the semester. Video presentations, faculty demonstration, and hands-on practice are the cornerstones of this on-campus class. Before getting started, I prepared an orientation folder required for students to navigate through the course, find items, post a small document in a drop box, and post contributions to the Discussion Board. It was important to identify potential problems with the hardware or software interface and resolve them before assignments were due. I found that my students completed their work at different times of the day and night, with many students working nights or weekends. With the input of students, we decided that all assignments would open in the Angel system on Monday afternoon at 5 PM, and all assignments would be due at that time. Sticking to this schedule helped students know when they had to check in. I also kept track of students' discussions and would contact them if I noticed a lapse in participation. Email and telephone calls and messages were our methods of contact; students had both my office and cell phone numbers, which enabled them to reach me and get timely answers to their questions. Many of my students were voices on the telephone until graduation when I would meet them at commencement. My greatest concern was how to provide hands-on practice. Since students lived in various parts of the state, it became the student's responsibility to enlist an advanced practice RN as a preceptor and negotiate with the preceptor how to arrange lab time totaling 22.5 hours. The guidelines for choosing a preceptor were clearly outlined. Labs could not be done during the student's work time and had to follow the progression of the course for content, with a check-off sheet to use as a guideline. There was no set number of hours per week; the student and preceptor negotiated learning contracts together and formulated goals for the lab experience. …