creating collaboration among competitive institutions

PowerPoint Presentation

Amy Simolo, MS, EdDDirector, Academy for Teaching ExcellenceNew York Chiropractic CollegeCreating Collaboration Among Competitive Institutions

Intro myself. We have been using examsoft since the Summer of 2013. Today I want to share with your my experience with a collaboration group that consisted of other similar institutions using examsoft. This group became a base of support, an inspiration of ideas, and a outlet for shared implementation challenges1

What/Specifics

AgendaWhy/Purpose

How/LogisticsFuture Directions

1.2.3.4.

Amy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic College

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Why should you want a collaboration group? Why not?


You may be asking, why should I think about creating a collaboration group with other institutions like mine? My question for you is, Why not? As anyone who has implemented a new tool, technique, technology, or process into a team based envirionment knows, having a support system especially one that has gone through or is going through similar situations can be helpful logistically, and can provide inspiration, motivation, and support. Why learn as you go or fumble through on your own when you can create a network of like-minded peers to brainstorm, troubleshoot, and give insight based on shared experiences? That was what I was looking for when I started this Collaboration group. Id like to spend my time with you today talking with you about the purpose of the group, what we did, how it helped, and how you can create a similar group with your peer institutions. 3

Betterment of professionPotential avenues for researchShared learning experienceWere all in the same boat connectionCelebrate Successes!Support needs/decisions

Amy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic CollegeWhy Collaborate among Competitors?

Many chiropractic colleges purchased or considered purchasing ExamSoft around the same time, and each of us had our own implementation plan, and unique implementation challenges to deal with. We also had shared unique needs, based on the chiropractic classroom and clinical programming. On the one hand, were all competing for students, so you might think that helping each other succeed in the implementation of this powerful program may be counter-intuitive. But the bigger picture is more important.

We all have the same goal to educate future chiropractors who will have a positive impact on the profession. The better we all are at doing our job, the greater impact the profession of chiropractic will have on society as a whole, and a positive outlook on the profession may drive more and more students to each chiro school. So essentially, its in our best interest to work together to improve the education and assessment of our students.

Opportunities for research across institutions is increased if we are all using the same technologies and have the same or similar processes in place. We developed our Category tags based on our national boards and our metacompetencies from our overriding chiropractic accrediting body by sharing these with between institutions we ensure that we will all have data that can be compared and researched and bonus, our data will all look the same because it is all coming through ExamSoft!

Over the year or so that this collaboration group was active, we all spent time on both ends of the learning curve. There were some calls when we answered questions, other calls when we had questions answered. Some times that we inspired others, and some times that others inspired us. Perhaps best of all, if we were all struggling with something that was frustrating or difficult to resolve, we at least knew that we were all in the same boat and could provide mutual support if not immediate answers.

When an institution tried something new or used the program in a certain way for the first time, we were able to use the conference call to celebrate and congratulate those successes. In a sense, it was a bit of group therapy! We were supporting through struggles, and through successes.

And seeing someone else succeed particularly in a direction your institution wants to go in gave the need additional credibility. Thats where the competitive nature of the instutions might come into play so-and-so does it this way --- and it worked! We can do it too! It worked wonderfully as a motivator internally.

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So lets talk a bit about the actual group that we had in place. At its height, we had about 7-8 colleges participating. Some had already implemented ExamSoft, some had contracts in place and were gearing up for implementation, some were just curious about it. We didnt restrict the group only to people who already had ExamSoft in place. We met, on average, monthly for about a year. About a year in, I found that participation and interest was dwindling, not so much because we didnt all learn from and benefit from the group, but I think we all were at a point where we had become more self-sufficient and were focused on the day-to-day of our individual implementaiotn plans. Basically, we got the growing pains out of the way, and didnt need to rely on each other as much for implementation and logistics. What I need to do at this point in the collaboration group process, is identify what the group actually needs, and adjust the focus accordingly. Ill discuss that in the section of this presentation when I talk about our future directions. 5

Conference CallsAmy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic College

Logistically, we set up the collaboration group using our campus conferencing system. We had the option of using webcams, audio only, and could share our screen with the group (or allow someone else to share theirs) so that we could show an actual process or information as we talked about it. We use Go2Meeting as our campus conferencing system, but most others allow for similar conference call organization and possibilities. 6

Restrict attendance to 1-2 people per collegeSolicit questions/concerns/topics ahead of time (organize the conversation)Invite your rep! Set up file sharing for resources (Dropbox)

Amy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic CollegeSome logistics:

The collaboration group was in place, at least partially, to lesson the learning curve for all institutions. But the process of setting up the group had its own learning curve. In the spirit of not reinventing the wheel and learning from the experience of others, I will share some of lessens I learned through my experience with the collaboration group.

If there were multiple individuals from each college present, the conversation was quite a bit harder to manage, and I felt personally like I couldnt make sure that everyone had their chance to be heard and have their questions answered. Consequently, we restricted the group and requested that only 1 to 2 representatives from each institution be present during the conference call. Those represenetatives could then relay the conference call informaiton to others. Although we sometimes just went around the room, so to speak, and asked each institution to take a moment to share their quesitons/experieinces, I found it was much more effective and led to a deeper conversation if I solicited questions/comments/topics ahead of time. After scheduling the call, I would send out an email asking for topics or quesitons, and use what I got back to set the agenda for the meeting. Although this took a little more work on the front end, it resulted in a more organized conversation and ensured all questions were addressed. A huge plus was the days when our rep could make it on the call. For the most part, we all had the same customer service rep at the time, so she was well aware of our programs, implementation strategies, and unique needs. With the rep on the line, we could have questions answered that maybe none of us knew the answer to right away, and bring up suggestions for improvements to the program that the rep could then bring up to the rest of the team. Since the needs of the chiropractic program may differ from the needs of other programs, and we as a group all had the same need, I felt like our rep had a stronger ground to stand on when bringing up potential changes that could help us. Prior to the call, setting up a dropbox folder and giving everyone access to it was very useful. If we discussed, for example, the iPad policies that we developed for students, we could use the dropbox to easily share that policy with the other institutions. They could then adapt it for their own unique sitaution, but didnt have to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch. 7

Pause for QuestionsAmy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic College

So I just wanted to pause at this point really quickly to see if anyone had questions about the logistics of our set up for these groups, or the rationale behind starting up the collaboration groups. Please type any questions you may have into the chatbox and Ill just pause briefly here to give you a chance to do so.8

Use of the system / learning the technology Roll out strategies Campus policiesiPads and logisticsCategory TaggingComparing ES data with Board scores

Topics/ConversationsAmy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic College

Id like to take a few minutes to talk about the conversations we had during the conference calls. We were able to discuss strategies, ideas, and resources on many levels, and these next few slides will illustrate that.

When it came to the general Use of the examsoft system, we often could help each other out. For example, we shared in the dropbox folder how-to resources, PPTs, and other insitutional specific support documentation that could be used and adapted by others. We have multiple subfolders named training docs from XYZ institution that houses the materias they thought would be useful to others.

Roll out strategies were discussed in great detail we all rolled it out differenty. Some went straight to ipads, some used scantrons for a while, some rolled out with a few classes at a time or only with new students, others jumped in on a broader scale. We all had learning experiences to share for the benefit of others. One of the benfits of the group was to provide insight into when an institution new to the system might be taking on a bit more than they can chew we all as a group could provide insight into whether a suggested implementation strategy would be effective, or if it should be tweaked a little for greatest impact. The institutions who bought into the system a bit later had a lot of expertise to pull from!

Rolling out a new technology to faculty and students results in a need for some new Campus policies for example, ipad or computer based testing policies, syllabus statements the actual verbiage your institution recommends to add to syllabi for courses that use ExamSoft exams, and any other policies that campus creates. In our case, we created a student code of conduct form for taking ipad based tests, which was actually borrowed and adapted from another institution (which was not a chiropractic institution) and shared with our collaboration group. Students sign the conduct forms at each exam, asserting that they did not cheat or otherwise copy or disseminate the test information.

As Ive stated before, Part of the roll out plan for many of the institutions was in the use of Ipads. We discussed in depth the logistics of moving to ipad based testing, from should students have bluetooth keyboards, to should the institution purchase charging stations for student lounge areas or loaner iPads for the library. We even went beyond the use of ExamSoft, and shared lists in our dropbox folder of potentially useful iPad apps that could benefit students in a chiropractic program.

We all answer to the same accreditors with the same metacompetencies, and our students take the same national board exams. So creating category tagging structures that are reflective of that was useful for everyone across all involved institutions. Although at the time bulk importing categories was not possible, having the list to go off of when creating categories helped in reassuring that all the important metacompetencies and board parts were included in the tagging structure, and that our tagging structures were similar, so that we could potentially share data in the future.

Once tagged, we could start to compare how students perform on examsoft data to their actual board exams. I remember the first time we could report on this from our school, when our data guru was able to find a high correlation between how a student performed on a board related topic per the tagging structure in examsoft, and how they performed on that actual topic based on their official board exam scores. Knowing that those two things were strongly correlated gave us a strong motivator for ourselves as well as the faculty and students to utilize examsofts data to pinpoint student strengths and weaknesses. Really powerful stuff! 9

Integrating with grade book systemsIdeas/questions for ES community

Topics/ConversationsAmy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic College

Other topics of conversation that came up during our conference calls:

Institution wide, we talked about the broad issue of integrating examsoft with exisiting systems, such as our student portals or learning managmenet systems. Our collaboration partners were able to report on what systems they used, and whether or not they were able to integrate the two technologies together so that data could be shared. We were able to use these conversations to pinpoint where we had other shared technologies, and discuss with examsoft any needs we had as far as integration with other systems.

Which brings up a good point and benefit of the collaboration callsWhen we found that we all or many of us had a simliar question or need, we would organize one of us to post the question/idea on the examsoft support community. Once posted, an email would be sent to the group with the link to the posting so that others could like or me too the post. As you may know, the more often a posting is commented on, liked, or me tood, the greater amount of attentioln it may get from examsoft developers. So our group had a great opportunity to influence the useability of the system through our organized group ideas and suggestions.

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Practical assessments: Clinics and Technique coursesRubricsTopics/ConversationsAmy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic College

Part of our unique use of the system was in the chiriopractic curruclium at the technique and clinical level. Practical assessments are often used at these levels of the curriculum, so we needed to rely heavily on the rubric feature of examsoft. Sharing ideas regarding the set up of rubrics, the useability of rubrics, and the grading of rubrics was highly beneficial. At the time of these conference calls, rubrics were in the early stages of development and deployment, and we actually were early adopters of rubrics, so we were able to , as a group, influence how this feature worked. We even had one of the rubric developers on the line at one point to listen to our needs, our use of the rubrics, and what we would like to see, collectively as a group, that would be most useful for our technique and clinical assessments.

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Pause for QuestionsAmy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic College

I just went through a wide variety of topics that our group discussed. That wasnt an exhaustive list. Id like to pause for a moment again to see if ther eare any questions about the type of conversations that took place in our phone calls. Please type any questions into the chat box.12


Lets talk a bit about the future. I have some ideas for my collaboration group and some future directions that we can take, as well as the easy implementation steps you can follow to create your own. So over these next couple slides Ill discuss the future.

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Amy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic CollegeFuture Directions

Future Directions Where are we going to go after this? Some possible avenues to reinvigorate the group. Keep in mind, these are ideas out of my head, as I hope to reinvigorate this group with a different focus. My future task is to reach out to our collaborators to identify what their needs are and how the collaboration group can be organized for the greatest benefit.

How great would it be if we can improve the quality and effectiveness of exam questions across all institutions? Especially those questions that are organized to replicate the way Boards is organized, or questions that incorporate case studies? Writing a really good exam question isnt easy and takes a lot of practice and study, it isnt something that just happens magically. I envision inter-collegial departmental groups that can work together on creating effective assessments for example, anatomy teachers across institutions could meet for assessment creation and improvement.

All (excluding international students) students take the same board exams. Outside of the actual assessment of curricular courses, examsoft could be used as a warehouse of practice questions for students. Sharing practice questions across institutions would be a benefit to all students. Additionally, using the data we all receive based on board topic tags could help to identify changes to our overarching accreditation requirements or the national boards that would be more reflective of student needs. As a united front, using solid data, our institutions could work together to influence overarching changes to the benefit of all of our students.

Currently, with most institutions in our group moving right along in their implementation strategies, we are all beginning to get some usable data. The collaboration group could easily become a research group, where we share data and develop research based on our examsoft data. Perhaps a meeting to discuss research ideas and possibilities and begin to develop research proposals is in the near future!

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Amy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic CollegeStart your Collaboration Group

What future directions can you take in order to create a collaboration group among your peer institutions?

You may already know what other similar institutions use examsoft, but if you dont, your rep might be able to point you in the right direction. Use your rep, your overarching accreditors, or other national or regional bodies to identify who your peers are, and whether or not they use ExamSoft. Reach out to those who dont use it to identify if they have any interest in the system.

Then its as simple as setting up a conference call. I found the hardest part of this was timing with institutions from California to New York involved, we had to contend with the time difference to find a time that worked for everyone. But I cant complain that timing was the biggest challenge!

Make sure when you do set up the call that you create a shared space, as you will want to share resources with each other.

Just because you organize the creation of the group doesnt mean you, yourself have to spearhead all the meetings, notes, and logistics. Within our group, I did organize all of the logistics, and it was easy enough for me to do so. But a potential alternative is to share the responsibility among all collaborators, so that each month a different college hosts the call and organizes it. This would mean that the knowledge about how it is organized, who is involved, what their contact information is, etc. doesnt exisit only with one person, and the shared dropbox folder may be a good avenue for this. I envision a Meeting logistics folder with an outline of who-hosts-when, everyones contact info (updated as new members jump into the group), a folder for meeting notes, and any other pertinent information that can make scheduling easier.

These are just some suggestions based on my experience. These groups can really be organized in any way that would work best for you, and you can take it to the level that benefits all the institutions involved. What Ive shared here is my experience and suggestions based on that experience, but use this as a guideline, not a rule. 15

Questions?Amy Simolo, Ed.D. New York Chiropractic [email protected]

I hope that you found this information useful and inspiring for creating your own collaboration group for examsoft users or the examsoft curious. If you have any questions Id be happy to answer them now, or you can email me at the address shown here. 16

creating collaboration among competitive institutions

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