Designing a new student orientation for Niagara Health’s visiting learners has been a challenging and rewarding experience. The new orientation is being paired with a launch of a new student onboarding platform, NirvSystem, that is being used to standardize our placement and onboarding activities. NirvSystem will provide visiting learners with a single place to review orientation materials, securely submit required documentation, and sign relevant acknowledgements through a user-friendly UI.
The new orientation module has been a substantial undertaking and work on it will continue well beyond the scope of this course through iterative Quality Improvement Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles based on student feedback and our student incident data. The module itself represents a refresh and consolidation of well over a dozen separate modules, documents, and presentations that were variably applied over the past five years. Many of these materials were originally designed hastily to provide guidance for the sudden COVID-19 outbreak and evolving policy changes.
Additionally, this orientation marks the first time that various NH departments had an opportunity to understand the student onboarding experience and see the influence each department has on a student placement. While still in progress, subject matter experts from these departments are reviewing and refining the content now, ensuring the most up-to-date information and practices are reflected in the messages we are sharing with our visiting learners.
In addition to reviewing, updating, and merging a large volume of information, I took the opportunity to reach out to our Communications department, our Chief of Staff and Chief Nursing Executive to see if they were willing to participate in a short video welcoming learners to Niagara Health. Both leaders are passionate educators and agreed to participate. While the recording session is this week, the video will not likely be ready for Assignment 4 submission, nonetheless, I will share the “final” product in an updated LRNT527 Moodle post for those interested in seeing it. The video is an important element of the orientation as it establishes a welcoming tone while encouraging leaners to seek support when they need it; something that can be intimidating for a health professional student in a large institution. This aligns with the substantial organizational efforts at Niagara Health to foster a culture of respect, inclusivity, and empathy for the patients were serve and for each other.
While this module does not directly relate to my final project for my MALAT degree, it was an exceptional opportunity to further explore the use of Articulate Rise and understand its limits as a digital learning resource development tool. As a result, I recently joined Articulate’s advisory pool to participate in surveys, interviews, and focus groups to provide input into future developments in their platforms, including Rise. Finally, I used this project as an opportunity to investigate a few instructional design frameworks and techniques that I had not previously used including Critical Pedagogy, Cognitive Load theory and the transient information effect, and Czerkawski & Lyman’s ID framework for e-learning engagement.
Overall, this was yet another enjoyable project in the MALAT program where I was able to expand my skills and knowledge through a real-world application.
References
Cayres Ribeiro, L. M., & de Carvalho Filho, M. A. (2025). Exploring untested feasibilities: Critical Pedagogy’s approach to addressing abuse and oppression in medical education. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 37(2), 273-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2025.2453809
Czerkawski, B. C., & Lyman, E. W. (2016). An Instructional Design framework for fostering student engagement in online learning environments. TechTrends, 60(6), 532–539. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-016-0110-z
Pitcher, C. F., & Browne, A. J. (2023). The potential influence of critical pedagogy on nursing praxis: Tools for disrupting stigma and discrimination within the profession. Nursing Inquiry, 30(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12573
Wong, A., Leahy, W., Marcus, N., & Sweller, J. (2012). Cognitive load theory, the transient information effect and e-learning. Learning and Instruction, 22(6), 449–457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2012.05.004
Hi Chris, thank you for your thoughtful reflection on your project this term. It seems like it will be an improvement for visiting students in the Niagara Health system and you have a solid plan for seeking and incorporating feedback. I’m glad you had the opportunity to learn some new things in this course relevant to your regular work and to test out some new technology tools that may enrich the design experience for you and the learning experience for learners. It has been great to get to know you this semester and I hope you have some time for a short rest before the new semester gets underway!