It's a problem every educator faces: how do you tailor your review process to place greater focus on areas where your students need the most help? This can be especially complicated when individual student needs are so different. When teachers have to make assumptions based on generalizations, instincts or unreliable data, some students are left behind and real improvement is a significant challenge.
That’s the challenge National Healthcareer Association (NHA) tackled at the 2018 CECU Annual Convention & Expo held June 3-6 in Orlando, Fla. in its presentation titled, “Advanced Analytics Empower Educators”.
NHA Analytics Solutions Manager Colin Davis and Product Director Nick Winston presented alongside Crystal Johnson, an instructor at one of NHA’s partner schools, Fortis College Columbus. The team walked through NHA’s newest analytics offering — NHA P360 Vitals™ — which launches in July 2018.
The tool was created in response to NHA’s anecdotal, qualitative and quantitative research. Customer feedback, qualitative interviews and surveys revealed that educators needed a way to help students narrow their study efforts, giving each student the specific support and coursework needed to assist them as they successfully prepare for their certification exams.
Leveraging objective and quantifiable data points can significantly improve the educational experience and outcomes, for both educators and students. Fortis College Columbus had access to the Beta program and has already seen tremendous results. Johnson says that three years ago, pass rates were 46 percent. Since her program began utilizing P360 Vitals™ as part of her course planning, Johnson has watched pass rates climb to 76 percent and the improvement shows no sign of slowing down.
With NHA P360 Vitals™, instructors and administrators can identify specific content areas that individual students, groups or cohorts of specific classes need to focus on in order to better prepare for their NHA certification exam. This helps to tailor feedback and curriculum, empowering students to maximize their study time and ultimately leading to improved pass rates, a goal for everyone involved.
“It’s a fantastic tool,” Johnson says. “As an educator, it can actually help you course plan for specific classes. You can identify what you’re not getting across to your students so you can structure class projects around it.”
Johnson says that her students respond well to the tool because they are so accustomed to phone and computer screens. Actually seeing an image of their areas of strength and weakness helps them to see the whole picture and understand the importance of focusing on specific points.
Educators can also help students learn by implementing various teaching styles. An instructional design of “tell me, show me, let me try” serves all types of learners. That’s why all three methods are present in NHA’s study materials (an example of one simulation is shown below). When these varying formats are used and highly customized based on a student’s or class’s areas for improvement, greater outcomes can follow.
To learn more about NHA P360 Vitals™, or to schedule a demo, contact Colin Davis at colin.davis@nhanow.com.