Day 2 AECT 2012: Part 1 - Microscenarios

This post is part of a Multiple Part Series on the 2012 AECT Convention.

#AECT 2012

9:15- 10:15 Scenario-based and Standardized Patient Simulations in Nursing Education
The first session I attended was about how to create simulations for nursing students. Catherine Maney of Northern Illinois University presented on how she created simulated live scenarios of mental health patients. The scenario she described was interesting - a bipolar patient in a manic state. I was impressed with the process they used for creating the scenario case:

I like the methodical nature of this task or case creation process, particularly the step of having another faculty member review the scenario. A great way to formatively evaluate a learning scenario.

They used a live actress for the simulation. After following the scenario-creating process, they

1. ran the simulation with 2 nursing students as the learners
2. filmed the students in the simulation as they worked through the process of calming the patient, gathering vital signs, deescalating patient's manic behavior, and administering medication.
3. debriefed the students on how it went by reviewing the video at key points.
4. had the students self-evaluate their work by asking what they did well, how they might improve.

The presenter mentioned that they also use these recorded scenarios as a way to present examples to later students in the course. This makes sense to me since students, particularly novices, benefit greatly from worked examples of how to approach a particular task. A very good presentation on an application of task-centered instruction, in my opinion.

The second presentation in this session was given by John Jeon and Terry Tao of University of Wisconsin-Extension. They described how they are developing an online scenario-based training.

The presenters described how they worked developed an idea of using what they call microscenarios. They basically broke these scenarios (cases) that they were using previously into pieces and developed an online strategy and technology for delivering and applying that knowledge.

Here are a couple of interesting graphics from the presentation: