Learning Design & Technology collaborates with Nursing researchers on innovative “plug’n’play” nursing curricula

A multidisciplinary team from Purdue University’s College of Education and the College of Health and Human Sciences’ School of Nursing designed and created two innovative Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to help nursing students learn to care for patients with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and with a special focus on Opioid Use Disorder (OUD).

Multidisciplinary collaborators: Drs. Nicole Adams (l) and Wanju Huang (r)

MOOCs are free online courses available to anyone. These MOOCs are made up of individual modules that nursing faculty can "plug'n'play" into their existing courses to provide extra SUD focused educational content.

The two MOOCs developed at Purdue are available for nursing faculty across the U.S. to use in students’ education regarding substance use and opioid use. Both are funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency that leads public health efforts dealing with mental health and substance use.

Nicole Adams, associate research professor at Purdue’s Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, is the current project director. The original project director, Karen Foli, professor emerita in the School of Nursing, worked closely with the College of Education’s Wanju Huang, clinical associate professor of learning design and technology (LDT), to develop the MOOCs.

The rest of the project team includes:

• From the College of Education: Seoljoo Kang, PhD student in learning design and technology; and Wilella Burgess, director, Evaluation and Learning Research Center.
• From the School of Nursing: Elizabeth (Libby) Harris, project coordinator and PhD student; Lindsey Becker, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and lecturer; and Emily Neal, doctor of nursing practice student. 

The most recent MOOC, “Advanced Practice Nurses’ Opioid Use Disorder Education Through a Massive Open Online Course” (APROUD-MOOC), emphasizes the nurse practitioner’s ability to assess, diagnose, and then prescribe medications for opioid use disorder,  across all fields of practice. There are seven modules, as well as supplemental materials, including a historical opioid timeline.

The original MOOC is the “Nurses’ Substance Use Education through a Massive, Open Online Course” (NSUE-MOOC). With two advanced practice modules, NSUE-MOOC is more foundational in nature as it relates to substance use disorder and contains educational content for undergraduate nursing students.  APROUD-MOOC expanded on the two advanced practice modules in the NSUE-MOOC.

Huang explained that her team worked alongside nursing content specialists to create innovative learning design concepts, uncovered strategies and technologies that improve learning experiences, and developed interactive learning experiences utilizing new instructional tools.

“This collaboration provides LDT students with hands-on experience in instructional design by demonstrating how to interact with subject matter experts and translate their ideas into different media formats, including videos and Articulate,” Huang said. “Most importantly, it exemplifies how instructional design can be seamlessly integrated into diverse fields to deliver high-quality learning experiences.”

Adams is grateful for the design collaboration with the College of Education’s learning design and technology personnel.

“As university faculty we are all educators, but when you bring in specialists in instructional design, you can really transform the material,” Adams said. “Wanju Huang has brought innovative teaching  technologies to this project which have elevated the content in these modules to the next level.”

The project includes a three-part video series, “Sarah’s Journey,” a story embedded with lessons for primary care nurse practitioners about caring for people with opioid use disorders (OUD). 

“It follows an individual who becomes dependent on opioids after a car accident and dental surgery - as the case unfolds she’s assessed for OUD and treated with buprenorphine by a nurse practitioner,” Adams explained. “My team has been exceptional here at Purdue University and represents many talented educators, advanced practitioners, and motivational interviewing experts.”

Adams plans to expand the APROUD-MOOC as more materials are developed. She said that although the primary purpose of the videos is to build knowledge and confidence while decreasing stigma among providers, it is also a relatable and approachable story from which everyone can learn.

“With an awareness of the tightly-packed curricula for nursing students, these materials are "plug'n'play" – designed to allow faculty to integrate them into existing course or use them in their entirety,” Adams said. “These are open access materials and may be used freely and shared with others, including industry partners.”

Sarah’s Journey videos
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Source: Nicole Adams, [email protected]

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