ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ

By Christine Coughlin, EdD, RN
Associate Professor
College of Nursing and Public Health

Since my arrival at ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ, I have been teaching blended courses. ÌýFrom the start, it has been a struggle to have rich dialogue with the students. ÌýThe discussions never seemed as lively as live discussions could be and it was difficult to assess the students’ learning from these discussions. Ìý

In June, I participated in an online course given by the Faculty Center for Professional Excellence to learn about online teaching. ÌýOne of the most important tools I discovered in this course was VoiceThread. Ìý

This semester, I incorporated VoiceThread into my course curriculum to capture my weekly discussions. ÌýEach week I would begin the dialogue with a question based on the week’s assignment that required a response from the students. ÌýThe students would apply the week’s topic to their own life experiences. For example, when I was introducing qualitative research methodologies, I asked the students to share a potential research question based on their work experience. ÌýTheir responses indicated they could apply their learning to real life.

VoiceThread brings the process to life. Real time discussions would not be possible due to the student’s schedules but having the asynchronous video discussion has proven to be invaluable. ÌýAnd for an added bonus, I can now put a face to each name. ÌýThe entire process has been very rewarding for me, as a teacher.