Course Demos

NorQuest's programs and courses rely on a combination of learning tools.

Elluminate Live!™ links students and teachers through the internet in a live, virtual, real time classroom. Miss a class? No problem! All lessons are recorded so you can review and practice class material. (view demo)

WebCT is an online tool you can use to review course materials, check grades, take quizzes, and interact with teachers and classmates through discussion boards. (view demo)

The Practical Nurse Program at NorQuest College aims to provide learning anytime and anywhere, with supported and accessible Web-based enhancements that allow students to take charge of their own learning.

These enhancements grant students password-access to a wide range of multimedia resources and activities from any computer with Internet access. Enhancements include the Practical Nurse Review on WebCT, recorded Elluminate Live virtual classroom sessions, and the Practical Nurse General Information course.

The Practical Nurse Review on WebCT features nine course reviews available via the Internet. These reviews include text-based summaries of materials, in addition to explanations of difficult concepts by means of audio and video supplements, self-tests, and interactive activities.

Summaries of curricula provide key points for study and identify the critical concepts addressed within course materials. Careful explanations of the more difficult and potentially confusing concepts enable students to see the curricular materials from a different, clearer perspective.

The audio enhancements include a series of sounds that might be heard with the use of a stethoscope during physical examinations, such as breath sounds and those of air-filled organs. These are sounds that occur under normal, healthy conditions or during illness. Recordings of 14 sounds have been embedded in text explanations to provide students with a conceptual base for relevant sounds.

Throughout the Practical Nurse Review, a student can select any of more than 2400 audible statements with written text pop-ups. These audible and visible supports further explain, elaborate, or apply to difficult concepts. By using these pop-ups, the student is able to hear, learn, and practise the correct pronunciation of difficult terms used by health professionals.

The review also contains 175 short clips of video performances. These clips are excerpted from videos produced by the Practical Nurse Program at NorQuest College and range from seconds to minutes in length. The video excerpts enable the student to visualize demonstrations of nursing skills, appropriate techniques, model approaches, psychomotor skills, the manipulation of supplies, and the safe use of equipment.

One course introduces students to reasoning in the clinical setting. Case studies that represent a chronic and an acutely ill client grant students an opportunity to apply principled reasoning and appropriate nursing concepts. As students are introduced to the planning of care in the nursing setting, they can watch the treatment of a client’s ailment progress by means of assessment, reasoning, and the nursing process.

As a process to rehearse assessment, students can select from 2000 multiple-choice practice questions created for the courses in the review. Each question supplies the critical rationale to support the correct answer choice and explanations about why the wrong answers are incorrect. Students can use these questions repeatedly, without faculty tracking. Relevant questions for each course provide students with experience reading and analyzing multiple-choice questions.

In addition to the multiple-choice questions, students can test their knowledge by means of crossword puzzles and quizzes. They can deepen their understanding using higher-level thinking as they use simulations and challenge questions.

Students can engage in discussion to further their understanding of course material and take part in the sharing of ideas on a discussion board featuring specific questions. They can also elect to speak with a tutor, either by telephone or e-mail, to discuss concepts.

In addition to the Practical Nurse Review on WebCT, web-based enhancements include the Elluminate Virtual Classroom review sessions. These “ELive” enhancements comprise more than 2300 Power Point slides in 11 courses with 65 virtual classroom presentations. The recordings simulate classroom experience by presenting students with a visible slide and an audible discussion. The presentations vary from detailed explanations of critical concepts and conceptual illustrations to applications of learned materials in the form of case studies and quizzes. Students are able to download the recordings and review them as often as they wish in order to master the material.

The Practical Nurse General Information course facilitates communication between instructor and student, student and instructor, and among students. Students have access to e-mail, links to learning resources from the library and the Internet, FAQs for courses, a calendar of events, an informal discussion board, and a video that features the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Alberta.

Last updated: April 29, 2008