One major content area for certification in nursing education is the use of assessment and evaluation strategies (National League for Nursing, 2018). Furthermore, nurse educators are encouraged to use assessment data to evaluate the teaching-learning process. Quality improvement processes, such as Plan-Do-Study-Act, fishbone diagrams, and root cause analysis (Yoder-Wise, 2015), are often used in clinical practice to improve patient safety and outcomes. In academia, formative assessments are used to scaffold experiences to meet overall outcomes (knowledge, skills, or attitudes) in a summative evaluation, but few instructional design practices focus on quality improvement of that process.
We follow an author-developed four-step process as an instructional design framework coined "PODE" (Purpose, Objectives, Directions, and Evaluation). It is believed that routine use of the PODE framework as an instructional design and continuous quality improvement method can reduce faculty frustration with student writing.
BACKGROUND
A group of interdisciplinary faculty in a Midwest college of health and human services began a college-wide discussion with faculty in spring 2016 about frustrations with student writing. This evolved over the next three years to include 14 workshops. At each workshop, the facilitators conducted a faculty workshop evaluation and gathered assessment data on current teaching practices, along with suggestions for future workshop content.
Information was recorded anonymously on flip charts, whiteboards, or summary notes. The resulting instructional design framework, the PODE framework, was introduced in early workshops as a continuous quality improvement plan for assignment development and evaluation. Faculty from multiple disciplines, including nursing, trialed the PODE framework and found it useful to improve development, assessment, and revision of student assignments.
PODE FRAMEWORK
Instructional design is an intentional process whereby a learning experience is developed by an educator. The PODE framework is based on instructional design principles outlined by Yelon (2001) and adapted to explain a process of continuous quality improvement in student course assignment design. The four-step process begins with purpose. Clarity of purpose is the justification or rationalization behind the objectives of an assignment. The purpose is an opportunity for the faculty member to explain how and why the knowledge, skills, or attitudes gained from the assignment are important in practice. The purpose may include details of how the experience parallels clinical, how the assignment provides practice in clinical reasoning, and debate or appreciation of differing points of view. The purpose of an assignment encourages reflection in action (Schon, 1983) and forces faculty members to be mindful in their instructional design.
Objectives should be measurable and appropriate for the learner level and connect to course, program, and institutional student learning outcomes. The objectives should reflect what the faculty member wants the student to achieve or do. In the workshops, faculty members were given teaching and learning tools (International Teaching Learning Cooperative, 2018) such as Bloom's Taxonomy sliders and a pocket guide for evidence-based instruction to support development of assignment objectives.
The third step in the process is assignment directions. Directions are the guidance system of the assignment. The faculty member outlines expectations of formatting such as APA style, writing mechanics, tone, and content in the direction section. Faculty guide students to practice and produce the desired outcome by setting expectations and controlling boundaries. Information given as directions dovetails nicely with evaluation.
In the final section, evaluation, faculty members communicate the intent of grading and communicate the type of data that will be used for evaluation. Rubrics can offer a systematic way to communicate that evaluation process and grading logic. Generally, a rubric is used to gather data for evaluation and consists of criteria and descriptions for that criteria from high to low. For assignment development, the important thing is to communicate the grading logic to the student prior to evaluation and grading.
USING THE FRAMEWORK
The PODE framework can be used by faculty as an instructional design tool and quality improvement method. As a quality improvement method, faculty evaluate if the purpose of the assignment was met, if students met the objectives, how well the directions were followed, and if assessment data showed patterns or themes to inform assignment improvement. In the workshops, authors encouraged faculty to take field notes while grading and then review those notes for commonality. One faculty member identified repeated comments regarding use of discipline-specific research. Upon review, the faculty member found the directions were not explicit in asking for discipline-specific research.
Emerging themes in feedback comments often lead to improvement of directions or reflection on the assignment purpose. Faculty observed that this reflective process of improvement made what they thought were clear directions or forms of assessment and evaluation even better. Furthermore, it was gratifying to see assignment improvement lead to less faculty frustration with work produced by students and overall greater satisfaction of faculty.
CONCLUSION
Over the past three years, the authors found the PODE framework to be interprofessional and versatile. The framework began as a faculty development program, where authors worked with approximately 12 percent of faculty (17/138) in their college. The authors then presented the framework at the 2018 International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference and National League for Nursing Education Summit, where participants found the PODE framework appealing. Faculty described using the PODE framework to structure clinical experiences and in-class activities as well as the development of writing assignments. The framework was described as an intervention by one conference participant who intended to use it for faculty development. Ongoing research includes pretests of student perceptions of writing at the beginning of the semester; exposure to faculty who use the PODE framework for assignment development, feedback, and evaluation of student writing in their classroom; as well as a posttest of student perceptions of writing and interviews with faculty about the overall experience.
Future plans include assessing faculty perceptions of writing in general and what they see as their role in teaching students the discipline-specific purposes of writing as well as the more general mechanics of writing. The overall intention of this work is to better meet the needs of students while also assisting faculty to develop good tools for instructional design and continuous quality improvement.
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