“Our goal in the Fundamentals course is to make it an active learning classroom. And you can’t do that if students haven’t prepared prior to coming in.”
The Clinical Judgment Activities aren’t part of their grade during the first semester. “We tell students that these activities are difficult, but that it’s a great way for them to start ‘thinking about how they are thinking,’” says Heidi. The result: Continued high NCLEX ® pass rates plus a better experience for faculty and students After the first semester using Davis Advantage, Heidi says they saw an increase in test scores. “At that point, we did a deeper analysis and discovered that average scores increased by 10% after we started requiring the Davis Advantage activities,” she says. Heidi shares this statistic with her students. “Some of them complain that it’s a lot of prework, but we tell them how this will improve their test scores and prepare them for the different question types they will see on the NCLEX.” Some students develop their own quizzes for additional studying. “While not all students utilize this, a handful actually do and they benefit from the extra practice,” says Heidi. “In fact, students who create their own quizzing are scoring higher on exams than students who don’t do this.” Conversely, Heidi notes that when students are struggling on exams, it’s generally because they have not completed the learning activities and other prep work. Heidi has also noticed an increase in participation, discussion, and application of the material when students come to class. “We don’t have to go through the lecture again because students come to class with knowledge of the material. This makes a huge difference in truly preparing them for clinical practice.” During class, they focus on case studies, group activities, and gaming, which Heidi says makes the students so much more engaged. “Sometimes when we’re covering complex topics, we have to incorporate some lectures in class. And I can see the students zoning out after just a few minutes. Requiring them to be active in the classroom makes them pay attention and increases learning.” The F.A. Davis experience: Heidi appreciates that the Davis Advantage platform is easy to implement and use. “We can easily go in and copy it for each semester, so that’s really useful for us. It’s user friendly for the faculty and the students.” She also utilizes the numerous instructor resources including the test bank, the ideas for classroom activities, and the ebook which she describes as “super helpful.” Heidi also praises the analytics that allow her to see how students are doing in the class. “We can download a spreadsheet that shows individual student participation and quiz scores, and also see strengths and weaknesses as an entire cohort,” she says. “This helps us determine if there are areas where we may need to spend additional time.” Working with F.A. Davis has been a positive experience for Heidi. “The response time is fast, which I really appreciate. Working with them has been great.”
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