March 1, 2013

Mabel Ezeonwu: Staying in touch with students in the field

Dr. Ezeonwu, an assistant professor in Nursing and Health Studies at UW Bothell, taught “Community Health Nursing” (BNURS 409B) as a hybrid course in Summer 2012. It’s a work in progress, she says, “I’m still tweaking it a lot.”

Why hybrid? “I just wanted to do something different. Something exciting, something that’s not the status quo anymore.”

Who are the students? “We do have a lot of non-traditional students. Students that are working a lot, that work full time, that have families. Some of them commute quite a bit.”

Benefits for students: “It’s good for them, but for some of them it’s challenging because some of them are not that computer savvy. It is actually good in a way, on the other hand, because this is exposing them to the realities of life in the 21st century, that you have to get in the ball game. I haven’t seen any negative responses. Students have really loved it. This model of teaching not only supports students’ synthesis of in-class and out-of-class activities through critical thinking, it also increases studentto-student interactions, and encourages full participation by all students.”

Student reactions: “Overall, I’ve seen positive attitudes about it, especially in terms of doing the actual interactions online. Those online components are always very interactive, and students tend to enjoy it, and I enjoy it too, so I think it’s something positive.”

The hybrid format: “It allows me to keep in touch with them while they’re in the field. I’m not with them, but I know what they’re doing.” Dr. Ezeonwu noted that although she still talks to students in the field, additional online communication makes it easier for her to know exactly “what they’re doing and what their difficulties are and some of the challenges that they face. It’s no different from the face-to-face conversations we have in class, but we are doing it online, which makes it fun.”

Online discussions: “Conversation is actually elevated to a much higher level. There are some students that are quiet students in class, that don’t talk much in the classroom; I used to be one of them. But giving them this opportunity to do this online — you go out and discuss your activities, you discuss what you learned out there in the field, and come back and talk about it online — it gives everybody the opportunity to respond. That participation piece is huge for me. And not only that, the way that students are participating is much more solid because the online discussions are asynchronous. In other words, they are thinking. They are doing their homework before they talk online. It gives them a lot of time to be articulate in responding to my questions, as well as to their peers’ questions.”

Advice: “For hybrid you have to be very thoughtful. If you do something that doesn’t work, you lose your students. So you have to be very careful in terms of engagement. You have to find a way to engage that conversation, and the level of engagement will depend on the kinds of questions you pose.”

The power of perseverance: “The first time you try something new, it doesn’t have to be perfect. My course has evolved over the quarters and over the few years I’ve done it, and so has my comfort level. I feel I can do this in my sleep now. So that’s all about trying — you try it, you explore it, you do it, and it goes very well, which is great.”

Learn More

Read the full Provost report on how UW faculty are enhancing teaching with technology.