Action Plan

Current Situation

Students in my DNH 120 Management of Emergencies hybrid course need to abide by current health care laws encompassing verbal and electronic communications on patient medical records. In some instances, patients will present with medical conditions that pose a higher risk for an emergency during dental treatment. To decrease the emergency risk, students must send a physicians clearance form to the patients treating physician prior to any treatment in the clinic.

To obtain these records, students must identify when a clearance is needed and learn how to send a cover letter and physician’s clearance form via a dental hygiene facsimile machine to an appropriate medical office. In turn, the physician will return this form stating that the patient is permitted or denied dental treatment in the dental clinic. In addition, the physician’s signature is required on this form.

Prior to performing this task, students are informed on:

o   current health care laws such as HIPAA (health insurance portability accountability act)

o   medical conditions that warrant a physician’s clearance prior to treatment

o   location of fax cover letter and physician’s clearance referral form

o   proper legal documentation and format use of each form

o   location and use of the facsimile and scanner machine in the dental hygiene clinic on their campus

Students are evaluated on this information via an Exam, but may never apply the information as a task. Currently, students complete and send cover letters and physician clearance forms on an “as needed” basis. Not all patients need a physician’s clearance. Therefore, not all students will perform this necessary task prior to entering the “real-world” dental workforce.

Desired Change

All dental hygiene students need to reflect on their knowledge of medical conditions that warrant a physicians clearance. To ensure that all students have an experience in sending a cover letter and a physician’s clearance form to a medical office in a law abiding and professional way, I propose the following action plan.

During the student pre-clinic laboratories, faculty will review the location of and provide instruction on the use of the dental facsimile and scanner machines on their campus. Each student will review a provided sample medical history, determine the condition needing a physicians clearance, and successfully communicate, utilize, send, and receive a sample cover letter and physicians clearance form via the dental facsimile and scanner machine. This assignment will be performed in assigned virtual teams and completed prior to students scheduling or seeing patients in the dental clinic. Furthermore, all students in the course will view other team posts that hold attachments of their shared assignment documents. This part of the activity will allow for peer-to-peer learning and foster a sense of community between the students at both of the campuses.

Plan Elements with Warrants

Elements	Warrants
Ask students to play the role of dental hygiene student and/or a physician. To decrease the likelihood of an emergency in the dental clinic, have students review a sample patient medical history:  identify medical conditions that warrant a physician’s clearance identify why a physician would approve or disapprove dental care in our clinic for their patient obtain, complete, send and receive cover letters and physician’s clearances in a law abiding, ethical and professional way.	Teachers provide the information, but students are going off and learning more on their own (Powers et al. 2012). Social constructivism is important for online learning practices: “Social constructivism reminds us that learning is essentially a social activity, that meaning is constructed through communication, collaborative activity, and interactions with others. It highlights the role of social interactions in meaning making and knowledge construction”. (Oztok et al., 2011 & web 2014; Swan, 2005).
All students will be assigned to a 2-person virtual team.  TEAM # 1            Assign 1 student from the VWCC on-site campus to 1 student from the LFCC distant-site campus.           Assigned teams will have a TEAM #  & folder within discussion board forum.	The size of the team and the extent of the team members shared work experience are examples of variables that have been found to have a major influence on communication patterns, level of trust, and project leadership and coordination (Henry et al.1998; Kerzner,1997; Shaw, 1976).
Ask students to follow a process: Decide how you will communicate with your assigned partner to discuss and accomplish this assignment (e-mail, text, phone) by the assigned due date. Discuss and decide which role each student will take (dental hygiene student or physician). Identify the medical conditions warranting a physician’s clearance and/or the reason for approval/disapproval for dental care from the physician. Review how to use the dental hygiene facsimile and scanner machine within the dental clinic. Identify correct facsimile numbers. Properly complete forms and successfully send facsimiles to your teammate at the distant-site campus via a dental clinic machine. Upon receiving your teammates forms, utilize the scanner to scan these forms to your VCCS e-mail account. Save these attachments. Post your e-mail attachments (scanned cover letter and physician’s clearance forms) under your assigned Team # within the discussion forum.	Virtual teams have access to a wide array of media and are able to choose among them for specific purposes (McGrath and Hollingshead, 1994). All teams need a vision, a mission and objectives with individual accountability to the team’s work (Henry et al.1998). When social constructivism is employed as a theoretical framework, social presence becomes critical as it connects individuals in an online learning environment and motivates them to take an active role in the knowledge construction and meaning-making processes (Oztok et al., 2011 & web 2014; Fung, 2004; Henning, 2004; Stacey, 1999).
Monitor team progress. Offer advice or support when problems arise (such as the facsimile machine not working). Upon teams meeting the assignment, let the teams know that you have received the assignment and share any positive or negative (corrective) feedback.	Social support relations are desirable for creating a atmosphere that fosters collaborative learning (Haythornethwaite, 2002 ). Negative feedback is never easy to give, but sandwiching criticism between layers of praise makes is more palatable and more effective (Dohrenwend, 2002).
Ask students that are not in the assigned virtual team to review 2 other teams attached forms and comment on their completion.           Are the other teams forms ethically and sufficiently complete?            Offer the other teams advice, suggestions for possible changes, improvements for future, etc. when applicable.	When students participate in activities, they project their own identities into cyberspace, “feel the presence of others online”, and create “ conventions and norms that bind them together in exploring issues of common interest”. (Oztok et al., 2011 & web 2014; Gunawardena et al. 1997). Students can study asynchronously on their own or cooperatively by accessing content when it is convenient and appropriate to them (Powers et al. 2012). Paragogy, or the new andragogy, is a concept of self-directed learning based on ‘Knowles’ (1980) theory of peer-to-peer learning where students learn more from their peers through social media (Powers et al. 2012).

References

Dohrenwend, Anne. Serving Up the Feedback Sandwich. Family Practice Management. 2002 Nov.-Dec; 9(10):43-46.

Fung, Y. H. (2004). Collaborative online learning: interaction patterns and limiting factors. Open Learning, 19(2), 54-72.

Gunawardena , C.N., and Zittle, F.J. (1997). Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer-mediated conferencing environment. The American Journal of Distance Education, 11(3), 8-26.

Haythornthwaite, Caroline. “Building Social Networks via Computer Networks: Creating and Sustaining Distributed Learning Communities,” in Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace, K. Ann Renninger and Wesley Schumar, Eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 159–190

Henning, W. (2004). Everyday Cognition and Situated Learning. In D. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology (2^nd ed.) (pp. 143-168). Mahwah, NJ: Eribaum.

Henry, J.E. and Hartzler M. (1998). Tools for virtual teams: A team fitness companion. Milwaukee WI: ASQ Quality Press.

Kerzner, H. (1997). Project Management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. (Sixth Edition) New York: John Wiley.

McGrath, J.E. and Hollingshead A.B. (1994). “Groups Interacting with Technology. Thousand Oaks”, CA: Sage Publications, in Challenges of Information Technology Management in the 21^st Century: 2000 Information Resource Management Association. International Conference, pgs. 583-584.

Oztok, Murat and Clare Brett.  Social Presence and Online Learning: A Review of Research.  International Journal of E-learning and Distance Education.  

2011, Vol. 25, No 3, Web. 2 June 2014.

Powers, L, Alhussain, R., Averback, C., and Warner, A. Perspectives on distance education and social media. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, Volume 13(4), 2012, pp.241-245.

Shaw, M.E. (1976). Group Dynamics: The Psychology of Small Group Behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Stacey, E. (1999). Collaborative learning in an online environment. Journal of Distance Education, 14(2), 14-33.

Swan, K. (2005). A Constructive Model For Thinking About Learning Online. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.), Elements of quality online education: Engaging communities (pp.13-30). Needham, MA: Sloan-C.

Research Report

On May 28, 2014, Group #1 (Sharon Freeman, Heather Harris, Heather Butler, Kim Gregory) analyzed, discussed and posted a Best Practices Consensus Report. This report was based on the following articles, “Best Practices for Online Instructors” by Wade W. Fish and Leah E. Wickersham, “(My) Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy” by Bill Pelz, and “Designing for Learning: Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online Quick Guide for New Online faculty” by J.V. Boettcher.

Upon reading the required reading articles and reviewing Group # 1 comprised List of Best Practices for Online Instruction, a few topics stood out that I would like to implement in my own hybrid teaching.

The following are my topics of interest and credible resources:

1)    Being present in the course. 

·       Establishing Teaching Presence

Oztok, Murat and Clare Brett.  “Social Presence and Online Learning: A Review of Research.”  International Journal of E-learning and Distance Education.  2011. Web. 2 June 2014.

2)    Providing synchronized and asynchronized activities

·       Encouraging Interaction with Class, Groups, One-on-one, etc.

Nandi, Hamilton, and Harland. “Evaluating the quality of interaction in asynchronous discussion forums in fully online courses. Distance Education.” May 2012, Vol. 33 Issue 1, p5-30. 26p.

Wu and Hiltz.. “Predicting Learning From Asynchronous Online Discussions.” JALN Volume 8, Issue 2 — April 2004

Stefan Hrastinski. Asynchronous and Synchronous E-Learning EDUCAUSE Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 4 (October–December 2008). PDF file.

3)    Focusing on content resources

·       Personalized learning

Powers, Lisa ; Alhussain, Ruqaya ; Averbeck, Clemens ; Warner, Andre.  “Perspectives on Distance Education and Social Media.”. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 2012, Vol.13 (4), p.241-245

While the above topics and resources are of interest for implementation in my courses, they will be beneficial in comprising and completing a sample action plan as well.