Shaping the Future: Nursing Student Engages in UC s Innovative eLearning Projects

Jennifer St. John is a fourth-year nursing student, a Student Government board member, a Darwin T. Turner Scholar and a leader in the University of Cincinnati’s eLearning initiatives.

St. John transitioned into nursing to involve herself in a cohort that implemented iPads in the classroom. Throughout the course, students were able to watch interactive Kaltura videos of lectures and engage in active learning.

“It was amazing to watch what was demonstrated in the books,” St. John said of the course.

The ability for professors to record lectures and then put them on Blackboard increases students’ accessibility to the knowledge, and is a way to encourage more active involvement in the learning process, she said.

Throughout the interactive lectures and PowerPoint presentations, students could quiz themselves periodically to make sure they were retaining the information.

Because of her familiarity with UC’s eLearning projects and tools, she was part of a pilot group to test the upgraded Blackboard system before it was launched campus-wide. Through Student Government, St. John also served on an eLearning committee for two months over the summer.

“I think it was a really good experience for me because I already had experience with the software,” she said. “I learned how much work goes into it, and the benefit of using one application or function over the other.”

St. John also reviewed Canopy with other students and provided feedback to impact the ecosystem’s portal evolution into the UC community. She wants to see more functions and applications woven into the portal in the future.

“It’s nice being able to go to one place for everything,” St. John said. The shuttle tracker and book exchange are two Canopy features she thinks students will especially use.

She wants to see campus-wide events on Canopy, and more students using the messaging system. She also wants to see more student polls sent out to measure how the UC community feels about Canopy.

St. John wants students to realize that Canopy is not just a name change. It is shaping the future of UC’s interactive learning. She would like more students to engage in informative sessions about the portal, to discuss what changes they want to see, so they become active participants in UC’s technological future.

“ELearning is getting to that next level of learning — taking that new, evolving technology and applying it to learning,” St. John said. “I want to see the entire university learn more and be excited about the direction UC is going. Technology is advancing, so we should advance our education as well.”