Quarterly Progress Report, First Quarter, Year 5

 

We are pleased to report on numerous activities occurring this quarter of the one-year no cost extension of grant funding from the Department of Education. This quarter’s Performance Report is available here.

Here is a high level overview of this quarter’s activities:

• According to Google Analytics, there have been over 8.8 million page views by over 3.6 million international users of the Open RN OER textbooks since June, 2020. Over 60 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada have adopted affordable print versions of one or more Open RN OER nursing textbooks. The entire series of Open RN nursing OER textbooks can be viewed on the Open RN website.

• An additional OER online textbook entitled Nursing Advanced Skills was published in April 2023. An affordable print version is being created in collaboration with XanEdu and will be available in August 2023.

• The Nursing Assistant OER textbook, funded with HEERF funding using Open RN processes and workflows, was released in January 2023 and the affordable print version is available for ordering from XanEdu. An associated Canvas course, containing over 100 H5P learning activities that instructors can integrate into their LMS,  will be released in Canvas Commons this month.

• The second edition of Open RN Nursing Pharmacology was developed in alignment with the 2023 NCLEX Test Plan. It underwent national peer review this quarter and the online book will be released in August 2023.

• The second edition of Open RN Nursing Skills is in progress. It will be aligned with the 2023 NCLEX Test Plan and will include multiple “Next Generation” style questions and case studies.

• The second edition of Open RN Nursing Fundamentals is in progress. It will be aligned with the 2023 NCLEX Test Plan and will include multiple “Next Generation” style questions and case studies.

• An additional nursing OER textbook is being developed entitled, Nursing Health Alterations. This book is aligned with a second semester WTCS nursing course (543-105) that is completed by both Practical Nursing students and Associate Degree Nursing students in the first year of the program.  If adopted by all 16 WTCS nursing programs, it is projected this OER textbook will impact 5900 WTCS students with an annual cost savings of $1,184,741.

• An additional OER textbook is being developed with Department of Labor funding and Open RN funding entitled Medical Terminology, Second Edition. The initial edition of this OER textbook was previously created by a WTCS faculty workgroup. The second edition will include restructuring and reformatting based on WTCS faculty reviewer feedback and an affordable print version will be created in collaboration with XanEdu. If adopted by all WTCS colleges, it is projected this OER textbook will result in $877,000 cost savings by over 8600 WTCS students annually. It is anticipated the online version of this textbook will be released by March 2024.

• In collaboration with LibreTexts, the ADAPT platform was customized to create NCLEX Next-Generation (NGN) style case studies and questions using funding by a WTCS Core Industry grant. These activities are integrated by instructors into their course in their LMS. Additional customization of the ADAPT software was funded by the Open RN project so that NGN-style questions could also be linked from the Open RN OER textbooks for “anonymous” student use. To date, dozens of NGN-style questions have been added to Open RN Nursing Advanced Skills and Nursing Pharmacology, 2nd edition OER textbooks.

• The Open RN Instructional Technologist has created prototypes incorporating several generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into virtual simulations programmed in H5P branching scenarios that also include extensive SME review for accuracy. AI-enhanced virtual simulations include images, audio, and video of diverse patient and staff populations, decision points requiring students to use critical thinking while applying textbook content to patient scenario, and a simulated nurse narrator summarizing the correct actions and associated therapeutic communication. Here are links to AI-enhanced OER virtual simulations developed this period:
• Nursing Assistant Chapter 1
• Nursing Assistant Chapter 3
• Nursing Assistant Chapter 6

• A manuscript on using OER as an equity strategy was accepted for publication in Nursing Education Perspectives for inclusion in their upcoming Special Edition on equity, diversity, and inclusion.

• The Open RN project presented at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) Executive Committee Annual Convening. The MHEC  Executive Committee includes stakeholders within and across member states, including higher education system leaders, state policymakers, legislators, and institutional leaders, while maintaining a focus on students and their success. Read more about the Open RN presentation here.

• The Open RN project has been accepted to present at several upcoming 2023 conferences, including  OpenEd, LibreFest, and OADN.

• We will continue to analyze and trend student learning outcomes for WTCS OER course sections. Data from the 2022-2023 academic year will be collected and analyzed in September 2023 and reported in the next quarterly progress report.