And so it begins…

I finally had my first day of class on February 23rd! It was a long but interesting day. I’m not sure if it was the idea of being back in a nursing school classroom, or the thought of having to be so sure of my knowledge that I could share it with the 117 students in this class, but for some reason I got nervous! The funny part was that my role was only to be an observer; I didn’t have to teach anything. Maybe it was through osmosis that I felt the sense of impending doom many students felt that day because it was their first course exam. I helped the instructor prepare for the exam before the students arrived, and I also assisted in proctoring the exam. I can honestly say that I don’t miss being an undergraduate nursing student on exam days! The exams given in this course are in the HESI format, which my preceptor has indicated that students have a hard time getting used to, but in the end have a positive result in success rate on the NCLEX exam upon graduation.

The experience of proctoring an exam gave me some insight into the amount of preparation that is needed on the instructor’s end for an exam, which is far more than I had really ever considered. Because the size of the class is so large, the students were split up into two groups and the exam was administered in two different classrooms. Small details like a sign-in sheet to calculators (for those fun little drug calculations), and numbered exams had to be ready before the exam could even begin. Once students started, my job as a proctor was to keep a close eye on the students, and answer any questions, without of course giving away any answers. Once students had completed their exams, the proctors verified that all pages were intact for each exam, and that students had their names on their drug calculation sheets because they were submitted separately. I organized the exams back into their original order, and helped my preceptor lock away the exams to protect their integrity.

It was interesting and difficult to decide how to grade some of the exams because there were many instances where students had written the correct answer, but did not receive credit for their efforts because they didn’t follow the directions appropriately. For example, students did not receive credit for their answers if they did not show their work. Also, some students rounded off their answers to the nearest hundredth as opposed to the nearest tenth. My preceptor struggled with the idea of not awarding credit for answers in both instances, but after speaking with other course instructors and considering what would be fair to the students that did follow the directions, she decided that credit would not be awarded in either case. This would be a hard lesson for some to learn, but would probably serve as a good learning strategy as I doubt many would make the same mistake again, especially knowing that it would cost them points! Unfortunately I have had to learn a few things the hard way, and although I have rarely made the same mistake twice, I don’t know how I will grade exams when faced with the same situation in my future career as a nurse educator. I definitely have something to think about…

One of the challenging things for both the course instructor and the students in this course is that the class only meets once per week. This means that lots of planning has to be put into making each meeting time productive and efficient. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make for a very forgiving day when exams are administered. Typically, exams in this course are administered during the first half of class time with a short break (10-15 minutes) and then followed by a class lecture in the second half of the class. My preceptor was forgiving in the sense that she chose to lecture on content that will not be heavily tested on the next exam.

After the exam and lectures were all said and done, it was time for a quick break and then off to a faculty meeting. This meeting was interesting because all of the nursing faculty were gathered along with the University Provost to discuss relevant issues and upcoming events. UTA’s faculty work in a shared governance manner, so it was interesting to see how issues come about and get resolved in smaller committees and are then reported back to the faculty for a majority vote. The University Provost presented information about the current use of and future increase in distance education at UTA—which as a graduate student enrolled in a distance learning program, was a topic of particular interest to me :)

After the faculty meeting, I met with my preceptor briefly to talk about both of our thoughts for the day, and discuss the plan for the upcoming week. All in all it was a full day, and I got some good insight as to what it’s like to be an instructor on exam day. This is definitely a role that requires lots of planning, but can surely be very rewarding, especially when students are successful! I am enjoying this practicum so far and am looking forward to whatever comes next! :)