Wisdom at Work: The Importance of the Older and Experienced Nurse in the Workplace

Focuses on promising strategies and opportunities for retaining experienced nurses, one of many approaches the authors recommend to alleviate the current nurse shortage crisis

Part Three - A Quality Online Educational Experience

This is the third in a series of three papers about online pedagogy and educational practice as part of the JISE “Online Education Forum.” This paper deals with the question: What approaches help assure a quality online educational experience? Clearly achieving quality is the chief concern of everyone involved with online education. This article focuses on techniques for doing that, such as mastering one’s course management system, standardizing course design, consistency in interactions with learners, and controlling class size. Another aspect of success here is developing a well-honed and consistent philosophy toward online teaching that will help learners understand what is expected of them and guide the teacher when unusual situations arise. A transition is underway. The same networking and computing technology that has revolutionized global commerce, and many other facets of modern life, is now being targeted in education. Partnering the Internet with modern course management technology makes it possible for universities to offer online coursework on a global basis. The critical task that lies ahead is to create and disseminate curricula of high quality that students can embrace and educators can sustain. The overall objective of JISE’s Online Education Forum is to examine the realities of college and university online teaching, and the processes of education using today’s information technologies. The issues and insights discussed in this Forum will provide educators with important tools and the understanding needed to embrace the world of online education

Part One - The Shift Toward Online Education

This is the first in a series of three papers about online pedagogy and educational practice as part of the JISE Online Education Forum. This paper deals with the question: Why is the shift toward online education happening? This is a complex issue that involves questions of educational access, paradigms for teaching and learning, competition and globalization among universities, the development of new and better online technologies, and the financial pressures facing higher education. A huge transition is underway. The same networking and computing technology that has revolutionized global commerce, and many other facets of modem life, is now being targeted at education. Partnering the Internet with modem course management systems makes it possible for universities to offer online coursework on a global basis. The critical task that lies ahead is to create and disseminate curricula of high quality that students can embrace and educators can sustain. The overall objective of JISE\u27s Online Education Forum is to examine the realities of college and university online teaching, and the processes of education using today\u27s information technologies. Collectively, the authors of this paper have taught over a hundred different university-level courses online, both graduate and undergraduate, mostly using the Internet. The issues and insights discussed in this Forum will provide educators with important tools and the understanding needed to effectively embrace the world of online education

Part Two - Teaching Online Versus Teaching Conventionally

This is the second in a series of three papers about online pedagogy and educational practice as part of the JISE “Online Education Forum.” This paper deals with the question: How is teaching online different from conventional teaching? By comparing these differences along several dimensions, a set of recommended practices for online teaching emerges. This article examines issues such as online course organization and planning, teaching guidelines and constraints, relationships between students and teacher, lectures versus tutorials, and assessment of student performance. A transition is underway. The same networking and computing technology that has revolutionized global commerce, and many other facets of modern life, is now being targeted at education. Partnering the Internet with modern course management systems makes it possible for universities to offer online coursework on a global basis. The critical task that lies ahead is to create and disseminate curricula of high quality online that students can embrace and educators can sustain. The overall objective of JISE’s Online Education Forum is to examine the realities of college and university online teaching, and the processes of education using today’s information technologies. The issues and insights discussed in this forum will provide educators with important tools and the understanding needed to embrace the world of online education

Creativity as a Reflective Learning Exercise: Informing Strategic Marketing Decisions Through Digital Storytelling

As educators we strive to facilitate knowledge and ways of learning that serve students throughout their lives, but we also recognize their sometimes short retention span. The innovation we present in this article consists of the use of digital storytelling as a conduit for students to construct a narrative of their experience in a marketing simulation throughout the semester. We explain the innovation’s implementation as well as the results observed throughout the years in the digital stories developed by students. Finally, we discuss further applications of this innovation in other courses and future research avenues

ANALYSIS OF CO-OCCURRING PHENOTYPES IN INFANTS WITH DOWN SYNDROME WITH CARDIAC DEFECTS

poster abstractDown syndrome (DS), caused by a trisomy 21, is the most common chromosomal aneuploidy occurring in approximately 1 of 750 live births. Individuals with DS exhibit craniofacial dysmorphology, cardiac defects, gastrointestinal problems, and cognitive impairment, although these phenotypes vary in incidence and severity. Common cardiac defects are usually recognized in young infants with DS and include atrial septal anomalies, ventricular septal abnormalities, atrioventricular canal defects, and patent ductus arteriosus. Additional abnormalities may also affect infants with DS, but not be identified until later in life. Since multiple phenotypes are found in these individuals, we hypothesize that children with a severe congenital heart defect may be at increased risk for additional medical issues. To investigate this hypothesis, we performed a retrospective chart review of 170 infants with DS between birth and 6 months of age who were referred to the Down Syndrome Program at Riley Hospital for Children from August 2005 to July 2010. We analyzed comorbidity in infants with upper airway obstruction (UAO) or a feeding problem with and without a severe congenital heart defect. Our data show that 33% of infants without a cardiac defect have identified UAO while 44% with a severe cardiac defect have identified UAO. Additionally, 59% of infants without a cardiac defect compared to 49% with a severe cardiac defect have a feeding problem. With the knowledge of these comorbid clinical features in DS, healthcare providers may be able to identify potential complications affecting infants with DS earlier in life