Donna Meyer: We're thrilled to see you today as you join us. We're just going to give it a few minutes, and then we're-- but if you wouldn't mind, I see a lot of you are not on camera, and that's fine. You might be eating lunch, or depending on your day, but it would be great fun to see if you want to put in the chat, maybe, where you're from, what school, what location. It's always fun to know where everyone's from when we're having the webinars or this series, so.
Participant: [crosstalk].
Donna Meyer: Okay. Oh, Howard.
Participant: [crosstalk]
Donna Meyer: So somebody is talking about-- so Howard Community College, I'm definitely familiar with, in Maryland. And we have Heather from Kansas. What school in Kansas, if you wouldn't mind putting that in. Benedictine College. Definitely know that. I actually went to school there. It's going fast, so I missed a couple. I have to go back up. So this is fun. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Benedictine, Atchison. So we've got Fortis College. A student success [inaudible].
Angelina Guzman: No, sorry. I just wanted to-- I'm going to jump off in a minute, but I just really wanted to say hi, Felicia. Especially, thank you for coming. And I see Rebecca's here as well. And the rest of you, hi as well. Some of you have spoken to me before, but I've never seen your lovely faces. So I was trying to get some associations since we've been chatting a bunch lately. Nice to meet you.
Participant: Nice to meet you, Angelina. Thank you for all your help.
Angelina Guzman: No, it's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us today. I will quietly fade into the background. I just wanted for sure to say hello. [laughter]
Donna Meyer: Well, we have people from Neosho in Kansas, so that's great. And Louisiana, North Dakota. We definitely work Butler in Kansas. College of the Desert. Another Fortis College in there, in Salt Lake. This is great. Ohio. Oh, New York, College of Staten Island. Virginia Beach. Another Fortis. This is really fun to have all of you here today. In all fairness, I'll have to say, I'm in San Diego. And I saw Kat Small is also in San Diego. Kat is actually part of the Level Up RN team, so. But yeah. And I know some of you have probably been on spring break, or I hope you're not on spring break right now. If you are, thanks for joining us. That's for sure. And we are going to get started in a couple minutes. It's just when you're letting all these people in, we like to try to get everybody in before we get started. But again, thank you for joining us today. We hope you're all having-- I know the weather's been really crazy across this country lately. Between lots of snow, and believe it or not, in California, we're in an extreme heat wave for this time of year, which is unusual, so.
Charise Lavarreda: I think 80 degrees here in Ridgecrest.
Donna Meyer: Yeah.
Charise Lavarreda: 80 plus, probably.
Donna Meyer: Yeah, probably, so. But we really appreciate all of you coming in. Yes. Angelina, of course, is-- let's see. Okay. Well, I think it's 3:00 after, and all of you, I know, are extremely busy. And we are going to get started with our level up elevate series for the March edition. Some of you have hopefully been to the January and February edition, and we're really excited that we're able to do this again. I do want to introduce Kelley Larson. Kelley, do you want to say hello real quick and introduce yourself?
Kelley Larson: Sure. Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today. We're super excited to host our third event in the Elevate series. I am one of the newest members to the Level Up RN team, and I'm seeing in the chat some familiar names from the EA family. So thank you guys for joining us today also. And so we're really excited today to be able to share. We've got a wonderful presenter with us today that's going to talk a bit about how she's really engaging her students in a really unique way of learning. And I think that's probably a common challenge we all face together. I, myself, I am an educator. I've been working in nursing education for about 20 years across all spectrums of education. But I'm really excited to be here. So thank you guys for joining us today.
Donna Meyer: Thanks, Kelley. So as Kelley mentioned, this particular series, we're going to highlight some practical strategies for integrating resources into nursing instruction and share some real-world insights on approaches that effectively support student engagement and learning. Drawing from personal teaching experience, the session will explore multiple instructional applications of the resources across different classroom contexts. The presenter today will present strategies to encourage student preparation and accountability prior to instruction. Wouldn't that be nice, if they were ready when they came into the classroom? She also will discuss how the mapped course structure provided valuable instructional flexibility, serving as an effective supplement or contingency activity, allowing for seamless continuation of meaningful learning experiences.
Donna Meyer: It's my pleasure to introduce our presenter today, Charise Lavarada, began her nursing career in 2009 as a licensed vocational nurse, graduating from the same program in which she now serves as faculty. After earning her RN, she worked in surgical telemetry before transitioning to the ICU unit, where she gained six years of critical care experience. In February of 2021, Charise advanced her clinical practice by transitioning into general surgery as a nurse practitioner. Since 2023, she has practiced as a hospitalist NP, providing comprehensive inpatient care across diverse communities. That same year, she joined the faculty of Sarah Cosa Community College in California, bringing valuable clinical experience and firsthand program insight into her teaching.
Donna Meyer: So it is now my pleasure to introduce Charise, who will have this wonderful Elevate series, March Edition. Charise?
Charise Lavarreda: Thank you, Donna, for that nice introduction. So I have now been a nursing educator for going into my third year. And I have used Level Up in a variety of ways, which I am going to share with you today. But the one thing I really want to touch base on is I don't know how your guys' classrooms look, but when I first started, I was using PowerPoints and kind of lecturing. And I saw a lot of this nodding off. And I felt to myself, there has to be a better way. I know it wasn't yesterday, but it wasn't that long ago. And I still remember that same feeling as the student of, "Okay. You've lost my attention, and I'm just kind of zoning out." So I didn't want to do that. And so I implemented the flipped classroom. I do some micro lecturing, but otherwise, I do all pre-recorded lectures. I ask students to come having watched the pre-recorded lecture. And then in the classroom, we do various activities, and some of those are with level-up resources. So that is how my classrooms are running. My students give me great feedback. And my last cohort that is now currently taking NCLEX, so far, all of them have passed on their first attempt. So I'm going to call it a win so far. So with that being said, I'd like to start with a survey. Except why is this not-- uh-oh. Oh. And it looks like I can start the survey. I don't know why my slides are not going to the next slide.
Participant: I can see it.
Kelley Larson: And so Charise, what's on the screen right now? It looks like the survey has popped up, and it looks like folks are answering the first two questions.
Charise Lavarreda: I do see the survey, and I appreciate you guys participating in that, although I don't see the next slide coming up that actually says survey. Do you guys see that?
Participant: No, but Charise, are you actually in the PowerPoint, or are you trying to change the slide from the Zoom call? Because you probably will have to be on your PowerPoint to change the slides. We have that issue with Google Meet as well.
Charise Lavarreda: I am in my PowerPoint, and I'm sharing my screen. And so this is weird because when we did this before, I clicked right through it, and it worked.
Kelley Larson: Do you want to try, Charise, unsharing your screen for a second and resharing just to see if that will?
Charise Lavarreda: Yes.
[silence]
Charise Lavarreda: I'm sharing. That's so weird. Okay. Well, we're nurses, so let's improvise. I can share my other screen. And we will share screen two. But it's not going to-- this is so weird. It's just not as big, but I'm able to change screens on this one. Do you guys see that?
Participant: Yes.
Participant: Yes.
Participant: Yes.
Charise Lavarreda: Okay. Should we improvise and just go this way? I'm going to talk mostly. The screens are just a short prompt. Is that okay with you guys?
Participant: Sure.
Participant: Yes.
Participant: Absolutely.
Charise Lavarreda: So a couple of things. First, everyone who has joined, thank you. There are so many participants. I am glad to see this. If you guys have any input, please unmute yourself and chime in. I love to collaborate and hear, "Oh, I used this, and it didn't work for me," or, "Maybe try it this way." If you guys have anything, just chime in. And if you're able to turn your cameras on, that's great. If not, just a voice or even in the group chat is great.
Charise Lavarreda: So the polls, it looks like we have 60% of you have watched Level Up RN videos. And 35% of you are using or have used the resources in the classroom. So hopefully, by the end of that, we'll have those numbers up, okay? So ways to utilize Level Up RN in the classroom, I use it in a variety of ways. I like to use it as a ticket to class, a low-stakes graded assignment. I use it as group activities in the classroom. I've used it as a class time filler when I misjudged my assignment for that day in terms of timeframe. I've used it as a content refresher for myself because, again, I can't speak for everyone else, but sometimes I'm like, "Oh, I haven't gone over this content in a while myself, and I just want a quick refresher."
Charise Lavarreda: And then I also use the nurse squad games. I started out with two, and now I have the whole series of them. So my students like those. I like them. And so these are various ways I'm going to discuss today how I'm using Level Up in my classroom. And to start, I want to show you. I know it's a little small and hard to read, and especially because we're having to improvise on this smaller screen. But the resource mapping is amazing. I don't know how much time this takes Level Up RN crew to make, but it's so helpful. So I sent them over my syllabus. They sent me this resource mapping that says, "Okay, for your first topic or unit, here are the videos that are going to align with your syllabus." It's a link, so you can just click it. It takes you right to it. And then also, the flashables are also linked there. So thank you, Level Up RN. This is a great resource and a huge time saver. So with that, I wanted to show you the first is a ticket to class.
Charise Lavarreda: And so how that might look for me is I post in the-- we use Canvas or whatever learning LMS your school uses. So I will post the link to the resource. And I will tell them this is an example. I'll tell them, "List three preoperative nursing interventions. I want you to tell me one nursing intervention from intraoperative and from [inaudible]. And then tell me a few expected findings in the postoperative period." And they are to have this either handwritten and turned into me when they walk in, or they take a picture and upload it into the LMS, so Canvas, before class has started. And so I personally don't give them any points for this. This is just expected for them to show up and show me that they were prepared and that they have reviewed the resources. And hopefully, they've watched my prerecorded lectures.
Charise Lavarreda: So if they were going to do this, they would click the link, which would take them here to the perioperative nursing care video. And the flashables, the flashcards are linked right there so they can review those and one of the new things Level Up has implemented, and this was implemented because of us asking how can we look at the stats? So here's a quick stats. Unfortunately, this semester, I am teaching as a co-faculty. And so the level up is in her name.
Charise Lavarreda: So mine doesn't look like my students are doing much, but they are. They are using Level Up, and I'll talk about that as we go through this. But this will show you your students' activity. And so I love this. This is new, and this is an amazing addition that Level Up has added. Before I move on to the next type of activity, does anyone have any input on how to utilize it as a ticket to class? Do you guys have any thoughts, or have you tried that? No.
Charise Lavarreda: Okay. So a low-stakes graded assignment. This is how this will look for me. I will tell them, "I want you to watch the video on spinal cord injury. I want you to review the flashcards 153 through 158. Each flashcard is numbered." And then they can complete the four NCLEX quiz questions. This would be, again, loaded into the LMS or can be turned in during class time, however that works or looks for you. This could be worth four points, one point for each NCLEX question or five points, an extra point for watching the video and reviewing the flashcards, and then doing the NCLEX questions, again, but very low level.
Charise Lavarreda: So it's not like they have to, "Oh, I'm going to fail now because of this extra assignment." But it makes them excited to do it. And I think they like those little extra points, if you will. They have to work for it, but fairly easy and very educational. So this is that spinal cord injury video here. And you can see this is how it looks. If you hit the link to the resource, this is going to pull up for them. Their cards are there, and the NCLEX questions are there. So they're not having to search around for the assignment that you're giving them. It's all on one page. They hit the links, go through it, and complete the NCLEX questions. And then I personally let them either snap a picture with their phone or a screenshot, and then they can upload that into the LMS. And I'll review it and give them their points.
[silence]
Charise Lavarreda: And this is another dashboard that also is new. So here you can see your progress. But the reason I added this is right here, if you have your students, when they come in or log in, they will click on the school logo there. And it takes them right to all of the resources. And then it's broken down into each unit. And so they can watch the videos themselves, even without being assigned.
Charise Lavarreda: Okay. This is one of my students' favorites. BYON, Build Your Own NCLEX. So has anyone on here--? have you guys had your students do any type of Build Your Own NCLEX type questions? I can't see the chat because of the way this is. Oh.
Kelley Larson: Theresa, I'm looking at the chat. I'm not seeing that a lot of people have experience with doing that with [my other?] students.
Charise Lavarreda: So how this looks for me, and I had such good feedback from the students. I actually have done it a couple of times now. I tell the students, "Let's break up into groups of three." I take my little cup, and I pull colors. So that's how they're broken up. They have to learn how to work with everyone in the classroom. That is one thing that I push from the beginning is, of course, you're going to have people who have common interests, and you're going to align with on a personal. But obviously, when you show up that day to work, you have to work with whoever's there that day. And so this is one way I try to kind of break that ice and have them work with people outside of their comfort group, if you will. So group activities. One, two, three. I draw the color. Red's here, green's there, blue's there. And then I give them the link. And I ask them to review the flashcard watch the video and review the flashcards. And from that information, I will tell them I want you to develop three NCLEX-style questions related to the topic. I also want you to be able to summarize the content in a three to five-minute short presentation. I will give them an appropriate amount of time to do those things. And then we reconvene. I am always walking through the classroom when I do this, and I guide them if they're not quite getting to the content that I want them to be really covering. So I'm walking around. What did you think was really important about that? Let's talk about why maybe this part of that video or this part of the flashables was really the big topic. And so at the end, they do cover what I want them to cover. And then we come back together. And depending on if I'm wanting them to really get some public speaking experience-- or sometimes I let them just share their content from their table. Sometimes I have the group go up to the front. It kind of depends. So they share in about three to five minutes what their video covered, what their flashcards covered. And then we shared the NCLEX questions. So the NCLEX questions from group one will go to group two, group two to three, three to one. And then they peer-review, utilizing our textbook. So they have to pull out their textbooks. They have to answer the NCLEX questions. They have to find the content in their textbook and make sure that the question that the answer is correct and peer-review it. And then we'll collaborate from there. And it's fun because sometimes one group will have a different answer than another group, and we'll have little debates on that. And we are able to really build off of that. And the students, they love it. So I have used this several times. And in the end, I'll collect all the NCLEX questions and make a Word document and send it out so that they can practice with them. So the students, they've really found this BYO in activity very engaging. And the dreaded oops the lesson plan didn't take as long as I had anticipated. And this has happened a couple of times with these classroom activities, and especially because I'm just now starting to repeat teaching the same courses since I've switched or kind of shifted to this pre-recorded lecture and flipped classroom style. And so sometimes I think, "Oh, this will definitely take 45 minutes or an hour." And instead, we're done, and everything has thoroughly been talked about, and we're only at 30 minutes. I'm like, "Oh, okay." In my own head, "What am I going to do? This didn't take as long." I just pull up that resource map, and I pull it up onto the screen, the overhead projector, and I tell everyone, "Go to this link, watch these videos, and do the NCLEX questions." They never even know that I messed up. They just think that I had that assignment made into my lesson plan. So this has definitely saved me now that I'm changing things up.
Charise Lavarreda: Oh, good, Tiffany. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. You tell on yourself? I try to play it cool sometimes. So this is how I've played it cool. And like I said, so far, nobody has called me out on it. Okay. So faculty content refresher. So basically, how this came up, and I was so thankful I had access to the resources and wasn't looking on YouTube and trying to find it that way because this way, I'm, "Okay. I know exactly where it's at. I have the link. Well, I'm going to be discussing or teaching today how to detect nuchal rigidity using the Brudinsky's and Kernig sign. How would Kathy do this? Or how would a Level Up RN do this? Why should I recreate the will?"
Charise Lavarreda: And again, nothing is more discouraging to me than when I look out and my class is totally dozing off or they're on their tablets and they're scrolling so fast that I know they're not following along with me. They're on Amazon or something. So I went to this video and I watched Kathy's-- it was Kathy who did this video. And I ended up thinking to myself, "Well, why recreate the will? I'm going to have the students watch this video," and then they are going to-- so we ended up doing a group activity where they watched the video and did some demonstration themselves. So I'll answer that question in just a minute about my pre-recorded lectures.
Charise Lavarreda: So one of the things that Kathy says on this video is for the Brudinsky's sign, it starts with bro. And when you [inaudible] and hurts and then, "Bro, that hurts." And the students laughed so hard. They loved the video. And on the test, they all were very confident when questions about this topic came up because they were able to remember those cues of how to remember. The other thing that from this video-- just as an example of why I find them so helpful is another thing as a memory trick for placing patients on precautions when we're talking about meningitis is the song It's Raining Men. So Kathy kind of talks about that, and that's a way to remember [inaudible] meningitis. Bacterial meningitis, we're going to put them on droplet precautions because it's raining men. And in all of the videos I watch, they all have a little memory trick. And the students do remember that. They do watch them, they do remember them.
Charise Lavarreda: So I would love to pronounce your name, but I know I'm going to get it wrong-- so I'm going to answer the question, though, that popped up in the chat here. Is it expected that students-- okay, Bea, thank you. The time allotted for them to watch the videos. So initially, what I was doing was having them watch it outside of class. But we recently went through our five-year accreditation review, and the NEC actually was saying that I can give them time for it. So I don't know that I do it minute for minute, because I don't know how long they're actually going to take outside of classroom to watch the videos, and some of them speed it up so they can watch it quicker. But I have been kind of giving them some time on the back end of class. If we're done, I'll tell them, "You're going to use the next 20 minutes to watch the video for next week." And that's kind of how I've been doing that, after the NEC said that I was allowed to allot them some time for watching the videos outside of class time. I do try to keep the videos fairly short, and then I micro-lecture on the really important topics during class. So that's how I'm doing it. And I know some of even my own colleagues, they, "Oh, I'm not going to pre-record a lecture. It takes too long for me. It's not fair to the students. They're going to feel like they're teaching themselves." But I'm not getting that feedback. The feedback I get is that the students love the classroom activities, they love not listening to me just talk for the whole hour and a half or two hours or however long we're together. So that's how I'm doing it, and it seems to be working.
Charise Lavarreda: Okay. So what are my students saying about Level Up RN? Because I'm over here just raving about it because I really love it. But my students like it too. So here are some of the comments I've gotten back from my students. I told them that I was hosting this today or part of this today, and I asked them, "I'd love to hear what you guys have to say." And so one of my students says, "I think it's fantastic. It gives a brief understanding of certain topics." Another student, "I like Level Up RN. That's how I learned how to read ABGs and EKGs. The practice questions at the end are awesome." She made a comment that the values differ from her book, but as we know, you always need to look at your lab value ranges. Every lab's going to have a little different for most values, so that's okay. "I use it in my downtime. The videos they have are really helpful. I'm sure I'm going to use this as a study for my NCLEX." And the practice questions on the after-videos and the cram study guide are things that this student really enjoy.
Charise Lavarreda: Actually, I'm going to interject there. When I went through our initial kind of introduction with Level Up RN and I saw the cram study, I was like, "Uh?" The students, though, they like it because they say that it really focuses on those big topics that they know they're going to see on the exams, we anticipate they're going to see on NCLEX. And so it helps them not as their only study guide, but it helps them just really kind of hone in on those really important topics. So I I don't feel that way anymore. Another student, I personally like how they teach on the key points of each concept. It helps me understand the concepts better than the textbook does. And another student and I added this one this morning because I really liked that she brought up the cool chicken hints because those are kind of that really big topic and a little chicken comes out on the screen and that helps them remember that information better. And so, this student recognizes that. She likes the flashcards and the quizzes, finds them very helpful, and feels like it's a good way to help reinforce what she's learning in the classroom. So it's not just me from my end. Students say that they're really enjoying it too. And then, here's my little fangirl moment meeting Kathy at Odin over the fall. That was fall, right? Yeah.
Charise Lavarreda: So in fall, we're at Odin. And a little survey. Can you guys see that? Because I'm sharing the other-- is it popped up for you?
Kelley Larson: Yep, the poll popped up.
Charise Lavarreda: Okay.
Kelley Larson: And so, Cherise, as people are filling out that poll, I just wanted to make mention. I really like how you touched on both the social and emotional sides of learning and that sometimes our students, when we say, "Hey, we're going to do some active learning," I have been in that situation where I've gotten the groans and the, "Oh, I don't really want to do this." And I love how you randomize it because it's not about, "Oh, pick your favorite person to work with." Sometimes, mixing it up can be one of the most powerful teaching tools because you're really getting them out of their comfort zone. So I appreciate you talking about that today.
Charise Lavarreda: Thank you. Yeah. My first year, I noticed, well, for one, I hardly had any time to do active learning because I was lecturing the whole time, and I was tiring myself by the end. I was like, "I'm bored of hearing my own voice. I can't imagine how they're feeling." So when I did, though, do group activities, I noticed it was always the same four students or five students, depending on how I was breaking them up. And that's just not reality in nursing. In nursing, it is you show up. You're on shift for 12 hours with whoever it is that is also on shift that day, or you show up and, "Oh, guess what? You're being floated today." And so I think it's important. And I'm hoping that it's going to help bridge that gap for students when they enter the workforce of being uncomfortable and having to adapt to it. So sometimes I get the dreaded, "Are you pulling sticks today?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I have my cup out." So that's your clue. Occasionally, on bigger assignments, I will let them choose their groups if it's worth quite a few points because I want them to not be so stressed out about getting to know another student. But yeah, for these classroom activities, I randomize it. So good, I'm glad to see people are excited. 90% of you are excited to use some of these activities in your classroom. And the other 10% are saying they already use some version of these. So that's really, really awesome. And it looks like the ticket to class is one of the favorite activities that people enjoyed from this. So does anyone have any alterations they might make to the ticket to class?
Donna Meyer: Charisse, it looks like your group activity, the BYON, was another one.
Charise Lavarreda: Oh, I didn't scroll down. You're right. 80%. BYON.
Donna Meyer: Yeah. People--
Charise Lavarreda: Yes.
Donna Meyer: --people like that one.
Charise Lavarreda: So this is not LevelUpRN, but of course, everything is we're trying to just do better. So one of the other ways I've used the BYON is trying to help students figure out how to use AI appropriately. And it was eye-opening because we used AI to make some NCLEX questions, and they were not correct. When we peer-reviewed them with our textbook, the answer that the AI gave, it made it, and then the answer was highlighted or whatever, it was not correct.
Charise Lavarreda: And so that was another way that I've used that activity and tried to show students how to use AI, and that it's not always correct. And that even if you're using it, you have to peer-review it or collaborate with your textbook on the information because it only knows so much. I don't completely understand the AI stuff, and I was pretty against it, but that was one way that I kind of showed the students.
Charise Lavarreda: And I was excited that one of them was wrong so that I could prove to them that, "Yes, AI's here. I get it. Supposedly, we have to figure out how to safely use it." And so that was one way that I had done that. And it was with this, the BYON. So that was great.
Donna Meyer: There is a question in the chat. "When using in the classroom, do the students have to have an individual account to access the resources?" The faculty member can use the resource in class. The commitment as LevelUp, gives the faculty an account just to use in the classroom. But if you want students to have assignments and do this work ahead, somewhat what Charisse was saying, and review the videos, then indeed they will definitely have to be part of what we call our Unified program. And I can put my email in there. And I know Kelley can too. And we can definitely explain how the program works and talk to you more about that on an individual basis, if you like, so.
Kelley Larson: And so I also saw in the chat, Charisse, as one of the recommendations or possible modification that I thought was pretty interesting was to use this as almost like a ticket to simulation. So the preparation for simulation. I know myself, I've taught a lot of simulation. And it is painful when the students come, and you're trying to facilitate a scenario that they really don't have that baseline understanding. And so I know for myself, what I've done is I've pulled up a LevelUpRN video.
Kelley Larson: I was in the situation where we were covering congestive heart failure, and it was really important for the students to understand the signs or symptoms. But they were coming in pretty unprepared, and we still needed to do the simulation. It wasn't going to be an option to not do it. So what I did was somewhat similar to what you talked about, was pulling up the video, reviewing that, going through the flashcard talking points, doing some of those practice questions. And then that helped us be able to jump into diving into the scenario a little bit more. So I just wanted to share that.
Charise Lavarreda: Yeah. That's similar to that content review for us, too. I'm sure at some point they've heard it in theory. They've talked about CHF, but they're not coming in prepared. So just that quick content review that really focuses on the nitty-gritty. And I think that that helps them kind of get in the mindset to get back on track for whatever simulation or skill you're going to do that day. I think that's a great way to use it. I was--
Donna Meyer: Bee put in the chat because she's used these level up for a while now. She said that she used, for example, is a concept introduction that you all were just kind of talking about. So she gave the example of ARDS because some of these concepts are so challenging for the students. I think that's one of the great things. All of the videos are very concise, and it's kind of-- it's concise and they're comprehensive, but yet it's really zeroing in. And Kathy has done a really good job as well as the other individuals who have created the videos so the students can really understand the content. And the last comment I just wanted to mention in case everybody's not following, that you have to be really careful because talking AI is great, but it can definitely have some incorrect information. And so just letting the students know. And so the other thing is YouTube has a health channel, and Level Up RN is one of the recognized groups, our company, they recognize it as accurate information. And I think that's really a plus. They know that this information being presented by Level Up RN is always accurate. And so that's really amazing that they have recognized their work. So something to keep in mind. Something to keep in mind that this is-- and these videos are looked at, they're updated, and they can be updated in real time. It's not like they have-- unfortunately, anything published like our books or any kind of printed materials, by the time it gets printed again, it can be out of date again. Especially like in pharmacology and things like that, where there's constantly new things being advanced, so.
Charise Lavarreda: There was a question in the chat from Nancy. And the question is, how much time do I give them for this activity? I think we were probably talking about maybe the build your own NCLEX on that, Nancy. Well, anyway, if it was about that one, it kind of depends on the topic and how long the videos are. But if the video-- and most of the videos are about five minutes or so, if it's five minutes or less, I give them time to watch the video twice and then maybe another 10 to 15 minutes. So I want them to do it quickly. Watch the video, come up with how they're going to summarize that content to share with their peers. So each group is given a different video and a different topic. So they're not all three watching the same video and coming back and collaborating. They're each watching a different video, and then they have to stand in front of the class and say, I'm making this up, "But my video was on cholecystitis. And the textbook classic symptoms are right upper quadrant abdominal pain, worse after eating, wrap around to the back, sometimes nausea, vomiting, fever, and this is the treatment." And then the next student might say, "Mine was acute appendicitis, and these are the classic symptoms." So they're just going to summarize it really short and then share those NCLEX questions. That is not out loud, though. We just take them and pass the-- if they've handwritten them out or typed them up, then some of them, they'll just hand the next student their laptop, and they kind of will review them that way. So all of that to say, usually, I can do that assignment in 30 minutes, sometimes 45, depending on the length of the video. Oh, yes, the squad games. So I actually have the fundamentals here. And the game comes with the instructions on how to play it. But basically, the way I do it anyways, it's probably a little different than maybe how the game's intended. But I have them break up into groups, too, so that they can collaborate with maybe two other students, so groups of three or something like that. And I will sit in the center or to the side or whatever, and I read the questions, and they can answer. They each get hazard cards. So it's kind of fun. The hazard cards are little-- I don't know. What would you call them, Kelley? They kind of throw a wrench in their plan.
Charise Lavarreda: So it's like, "Okay. This is how it's going to be," then another group can say, "Oh, here's a hazard." So this is fun. This is something I-- I don't do it a lot in classroom, but honestly, sometimes the students will stay after and ask to play it. So I have them as a resource there for them to use. And where we live and our campus, we have some really nice lawn areas, which we're desert, so we don't have a lot of grass. So on our campus, we have a couple of nice areas. And when it's nice outside, and I know that we have been inside a lot, we go out and sit there. Thankfully, our campus is pretty quiet, and so nobody's around. And so we sometimes do that. We go outside and get some sunshine. And this is one of the things I'll take out with us because it's easy to just pack up. It's all in this nice little-- I have several of them, but. So whatever topic we're covering, we go out and play the game.
Kelley Larson: I have found, too, Cherise, that I've-- there is a question in the chat about, "Would it be okay to use them in the PN classes?" I've used them in the PN classes before. And similar to you, Cherise, sometimes I think keeping our students engaged is part of our ability to mix things up because their attention spans are pretty short. And while we have so much content to cover, we want to make sure that it's really sticking with them, right? It's not just plow through the material. They got to kind of hang on to it. So I have found myself that sometimes I run into issues with downtime when we're doing skills validations, where I've got a group of students waiting, but I've got to focus on something else. And having the nurse squad game, I've pulled it out in that instance, and it's been really helpful to not end up getting a group of students who's just grumpy because they're waiting.
Charise Lavarreda: That's a great way of using it. Yeah. I mean, we live in a small community, and we've had patients pass at the nursing home, and I typically have students who work at the nursing home. And so sometimes we come in on Monday morning, and I can just tell the morale of the classroom's down because maybe they knew that patient. Maybe it was a resident who was on the inpatient side, and so we might have been part of their care during our clinical days. And because we are a small town, sometimes you come in, and maybe just the morale's down. And I just kind of shift sometimes and this will be something I pull out because it gets everyone laughing and kind of eases the mood a little bit. That's happened a couple of times now over the last three years with residents from our local nursing facility because they do. They become family with the employees who are now my students sitting in my classroom. And then also we were maybe involved, like I said, so it's kind of a full circle in a small community. So I have used this in that instance, too, where I'm like, "I can just tell they're not in a good space right now to really get heavy content." So we'll just kind of adjust.
Donna Meyer: Yeah. Great idea. Any more questions for Charise?
Participant: I have a question. I don't know if maybe Donna or Kelley you guys can answer, but do you know if the questions on the squad game are they the same ones students can find on the Level Up RN website or they're completely different questions?
Kelley Larson: They're completely different. Yeah.
Charise Lavarreda: There are tons of questions on there too because each card-- I mean, you can see this is just one from Fundamentals. And then each card has two questions on it. I know you can't see that very well, but there are tons of questions on the squad game cards.
Kelley Larson: And then, Charise, there's a question in the chat from Michelle asking, "How many students are typically in your classroom?"
Donna Meyer: So in the LVN, there's 15. In the RN, there's 10, and I am teaching in both. So depending on where I'm at.
Kelley Larson: Other questions from the group?
Charise Lavarreda: I do want to mention to Michelle, if you're in a bigger cohort where you have maybe 20 or 30 students, I think that I have thought about that, and I think you probably could still break them up into groups. You'd have to set some strict boundaries on their time frames, I think, to keep them on track. But I do think it would be doable. Maybe have two groups do the same video, and then they have maybe three minutes to collaborate. And that bigger group so maybe you broke it up into five each. That bigger group of 10 would have to say, "Okay, we both watch the video separately in our smaller groups. Here's what our takeaway was," and they have to come together and just present as one big group. That is one way I think you could probably do it in a bigger cohort.
Participant: Yeah. I was just wondering that, too, because I have like 52 in them. And it's first semester, pre-licensure, all the things. So they're just started trying to figure out I'm sure it will shrink by the time I get to fall, and I'm teaching maternity, which is what I love. So I might be able to do something about it. I'm just trying to process how it's going to work because I love the idea of it very much. So I don't like death by PowerPoint, but so far, that's what's happening because of a large group.
Charise Lavarreda: Yes. I don't have experience in that, but I have thought about it. What if we do grow bigger and we do have bigger cohorts? How is that going to look in the way that I'm doing things? I know we're unique because we are fairly small, but I believe it could be doable. I think it would be just really important to set the timeframe boundaries. And when you're walking around, making sure that, "Okay you have two minutes to wrap this up," so keeping them kind of in the right direction.
Participant: Setting boundaries. Now, I have used the videos in the lab, and so my lab groups are fairly smaller. I might have eight groups of maybe less than 10, obviously. And so I do use the videos then, and we talk about them. And I think it was me talking about introducing concepts. And so I do find it very valuable for the smaller group.
Charise Lavarreda: Christine, yes. I agree. We have to force them to actively participate. And the Level Up RN videos are a great way to do that.
Kelley Larson: Well, just to share with the group, and we really appreciate everybody joining today and really kind of the conversation because our intentions here are to really share some of those best practices in teaching. So as we're wrapping up our March series today, please know that we're going to continue offering these on a monthly basis. And if you have any interest in participating, even coming and sharing some of the things that you're doing, please do not hesitate to reach out to myself, to Donna, to anybody on the level-up RN team. Our intentions for the Elevate series are truly to bring educators together and to start having the conversations around the challenges that we're all facing in nursing education. And so, Cherise, thank you so much for coming today and sharing this information with the group. I'm not sure if you wouldn't mind putting your email in the chat in case others that have joined us today might have questions.
Charise Lavarreda: Coming now.
Kelley Larson: Perfect. And so for this presentation today, we're not able to offer CEUs, but it is something we're looking to do in the future. So we appreciate that shout out. Any other questions or comments from the group? All right. Well, we really appreciate you joining. I'm going to stay on just in case if there's any questions. And then also if folks would like to see the platform again. I know Sharisu had provided some information, but if there's some folks that are less familiar, I'm certainly available to do a walkthrough also.
Charise Lavarreda: Thank you for having me.
Donna Meyer: [crosstalk] again, Cherise. Awesome.
Charise Lavarreda: Thank you.
Kelley Larson: Thank you, Cherise, so much. We really appreciate you doing an awesome job.
Charise Lavarreda: Thank you.
