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Instructional Design
THE CARDIOVASCULAR SOCIETY EVALUATION TOOL
by
Erich Widemark, MSN, RN, FNP
September 24, 2003
Introduction and Background
The Cardiovascular Society of Advanced Practice Providers (CVSAPP) is comprised of a group of Nurse Practitioners, Physicians, and Physician Assistants who meet on a quarterly basis to enhance their knowledge of different areas of cardiovascular health care. This group was originally started three years ago by a local nurse practitioner and has been well received by Arizona health care providers. This collection of learners is organized completely in an online environment. The website, www.arizonanp.com/cvsapp.htm is updated quarterly to list the next scheduled event. A personalized invitation is emailed to each mailing list member, and they are given the opportunity to RSVP for a space at upcoming presentations.
Although there are many groups who offer continuing medical education, CVSAPP is unique in several regards. All contacts between meetings are made by email only. A website listing upcoming topics is enhanced with a reservation form to help predict attendance. While most other pharmaceutical sponsored events are advertised by word of mouth through a pharmaceutical sales force, CVSAPP participants are emailed on a regular basis with upcoming meeting information. The upcoming curriculum is determined through discussion between the CVSAPP director and the sponsoring company. Topic areas consist of a cardiovascular focus, and are dependent on availability and choice of presenter.
Problem and Project Goal
There has been a problem with inconsistency in the attendance of the meetings. This is a difficult issue which could have many different potential causes. An important part of leadership in instructional design is an understanding of the system, and the ability to assess the overall effectiveness of the learning milieu. According to Shipengrover and James, designing measures that assess the quality of medical education is an important issue for educators. There is a need to go beyond measuring the quality of instruction, and concentrate on adopting a systems perspective for improving instruction as a process (1999).
CVSAPP is in need of an evaluation tool to focus on this process. The Cardiovascular Society Evaluation Tool (CSET) is an attempt to assess the current target population to better understand their needs for the development of future curriculum. The CSET questionnaire is an interactive web page designed to query past meeting experiences through menu-driven choices, and identify future wishes for both the curriculum and other pertinent factors. The goal of this tool is to solve the problem of inconsistent attendance and to improve the educational and environmental content.
Instructional Design Model
There are many suggested models for instructional design. According to Clark, one of the more popular examples is the ‘ADDIE’ method (assess, design, develop, implement, and evaluate) (2000). Some critics suggest that this is a very linear way of instructional design, and lacking the flexibility needed to create a bipartisan learning environment. (Wilson, Jonassen, & Cole, 1993). Because there is such a large area of human interaction in the educational process, many factors can prove unpredictable in teaching.
Wilson, Jonassen, and Cole suggest an old process of manufacturing that can be utilized in instructional design. Rapid prototype design has been utilized in software development and manufacturing for many years (1993). This process utilizes a circular approach to instructional design by integrating the learner into the design process.
Very similar to an iterative process, RPD has six steps that repeat. They include needs assessment, defining objectives, developing the system, user evaluation, concept refinement, and implementation of refined requirements. The system then returns to user evaluation only to continue through these steps indefinitely.
CSET in the Rapid Prototype Design Process
The assessment of analysis and need is completed at the establishment of the CVSAPP group. At this time objectives are set and include the continuing education of health care providers in a cardiovascular focus. The meetings fulfill the development of the system. CSET then acts as the user evaluation for determining what areas are in need of refinement. When the survey tool is collected, changes will be implemented. The user evaluation part of the process then begins again.
The Learner and Environment
The learners consist of health care providers who deliver services to the local population in central Arizona. Although some work for cardiovascular groups, many learners are student nurse practitioner and physician assistants. Others work in a non-cardiovascular focus, but are interested in enhancing their area of education in cardiology. This diversity creates difficulty in planning curriculum that will be disseminated to providers with so many different levels of experience and knowledge. Because there has been an inconsistency in the quantity of attendees, the learners need the ability to communicate their concerns and suggestions to the meeting planner.
The Solution
The CSET tool hopes to enhance the communication between the learner and the leadership of CVSAPP. This will allow for changes in location, focus, and speaker planning. This tool has unique advantages to paper based assessment tools.
The CSET survey will be accessible from any computer with internet access. This enables the learner to complete the survey at their leisure without significant effort at remembering and doing the survey. Learners can be contacted by email as a reminder to complete the survey, thus increasing the response percentage when compared with paper based evaluation forms.
The survey can maintain an absolute confidentiality that cannot be transferred from a paper-based system. This anonymity should offer a more accurate and truthful assessment tool.
Moving Forward
Because the director of CVSAPP is the main stakeholder in the success of the group, very little is foreseen as a problem for implementation of the CSET tool. The meetings are sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. In working with multiple sales personnel from many different companies, there is concern that the tool will not always be welcome in certain conditions. By explaining the rationale for assessment, and offering information on improvement of the process, the pharmaceutical company can reap the benefits of better future learner attendance at these events.
Conclusion
This project relates to leadership and instructional design in education. Assessment and the knowledge regarding the receiving population is a very important attribute in the instructional design process. Many seem to build a content design with the idea that ‘if we build, people will come’. This is a short sighted idea with no basis in learning theory. This project will allow CVSAPP to learn the development process of a web or email based survey form, including the distribution and collection of information. It will permit for the analysis of the raw data for making decisions regarding the future venues and educational offerings of this select group of professional adult learners. This project will utilize the conceptual model of rapid prototype design to enhance the process and quality of future endeavors.
References
Clark, D. (2000). Introduction to instruction system design. Retrieved on September 23, 2003 at http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/sat1.html
Shipengrover, J., James, P. (1999). Measuring instructional quality in community-orientated medical education: looking into the black box. Medical Education (33), pp. 846-853
Wilson, B. G., Jonassen, D. H., & Cole, O. (1993). Cognitive approaches to instructional design. In G. M. Piskurich (Ed.), The ASTD handbook of instructional technology. New York: McGraw Hill. Retrieved online on September 24, 2003 at http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bwilson/training.html