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International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Educationhttp://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/2020, Volume 32, Number 1, 117-124ISSN 1812-9129Improving Student Learning Outcomes through a CollaborativeHigher Education PartnershipLibba McMillan, Tanya Johnson,Francine M. Parker, and Caralise W. HuntDiane E. BoydFurman UniversityAuburn UniversityThe aim of this article is to discuss a portfolio of interventions used to improve student outcomes inan accredited southeastern university’s baccalaureate nursing program. Faculty identified threespecific student-focused issues challenging student learning: (a) a steady trend of increasing studentenrollment, (b) increased difficulty level of the national licensure exam, and (c) lack of a structuredremediation/mentoring process to improve student skills. Increasing student enrollment challengedfaculty to explore teaching strategies designed for larger class sizes, to maximize teachingeffectiveness, and to use standardized exam results to inform curricular changes. A LearningImprovement Team (LIT) was strategically formed with university resources; The Biggio Center forthe Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (BC), the Office of Academic Assessment (OAA), andthe School of Nursing. Faculty, particularly junior-level, are taking the lead role in implementingpivotal changes in courses. Strategies include student learning outcomes improvement efforts as adepartmental goal and expectation, dashboard communication for data-based curricular decisions,faculty workshops spotlighting successful classroom strategies, and interdisciplinary universitypartnerships. Lessons learned included recognition of the need for congruent faculty role expectationsand workload, as well as awareness of the critical role of institutional support and collaboration. Thissuccessful partnership positively impacted nursing faculty, transformed departmental culture, andimproved student outcomes.Students are continually challenged to performacademically at a high level and make small behavioralchanges to yield big benefits in achieving success in a nursingprogram. Popkess and Frey (2016) posit that nursingstudents may underestimate, or lack comprehension of, thenumerous challenges found in the journey through nursingschool. Although numerous sources recommend integratingstudent success programs into curricula and policies, there arebarriers to sustaining these efforts. Despite due diligence andgood intentions, faculty committed to improving teachingskills face many barriers. These include heavy facultyworkload, faculty perception of lack of competency toremediate, inexperienced faculty, and a generalizedperception of remediation being the responsibility of studentsrather than faculty (Jeffreys, 2012; Mee & Schreiner, 2016).Faculty need institutional and departmental support that canadequately address needs and deficiencies and provideresources to improve student learning. Nursing programs alsomust have a process in place to define “at-risk” parametersand identify students early to personalize a remediation planbased on the student’s self-evaluation coupled with facultysupport (Elder, Jacobs & Fast, 2015). Given thesechallenges, it is important that students have access to facultywho can facilitate resolution of problems that could interferewith student progression through undergraduate programs. Inaddition, faculty must have relevant support (Elder, 2015;Mills, Wilson & Bar, 2001).Faculty members in one accredited baccalaureatenursing school program in a large southeasternuniversity identified three specific student-focusedissues challenging student learning. These included: (a)a steady trend of increasing student enrollment, (b) asignificant increased difficulty level of the NationalCouncil Licensure Exam (NCLEX-RN ) exam inSpring 2013, and (c) lack of a structured remediation/mentoring process to improve student skills. The steadytrend of increasing annual student enrollment challengedfaculty to employ teaching strategies designed for largerclass sizes. Faculty members focused on systematicefforts to increase the level of difficulty in exams in orderto align more closely with questions written at theapplication level of Bloom’s taxonomy or above-- versusthe previous lower levels of knowledge andcomprehension. The purpose of this article is to discussa portfolio of interventions used to improve studentlearning outcomes and remediation/ mentoring processefforts in a baccalaureate nursing program. Thestrategies described emerged from the formation of aunique partnership focused on faculty development andacademic assessment and termed the LearningImprovement Team (LIT). The project was reviewed bythe University IRB and determined Not Human SubjectsResearch (NHSR).Review of LiteratureMontenegro and Jankowski (2017) discuss learningoutcomes as a process with statements that clearly addresswhat students should know and be able to demonstrate uponcompletion of a course, academic program, and use ofstudent services. These learning outcomes statements mustalign with the department’s goals and the mission of theuniversity. Additionally, through carefully constructedlearning outcomes statements, students must understand

McMillan, Johnson, Parker, Hunt, and Boyddepartmental expectations as a guide for future career growth,thus necessitating the importance of using intentionallanguage (Adelman, 2015; National Institute for LearningOutcomes Assessment, 2016).Faculty must first understand major concepts ofhow to ensure student learning and how to motivatestudents to learn. Learning theories benefit faculty byoffering various dimensions and dynamics whenchallenged with the concept of improving studentlearning. Butts and Rich (2018) explain learningtheory’s foundations in psychology and ethicsregarding how learning occurs. Student learning iscomplex and occurs in individual courses, generaleducation core courses, clinical experiences, andstudent life. While there exists an abundance ofliterature to support faculty employing multipleteaching strategies to meet the needs of individualstudent learning styles, students should be encouragedto seek, develop, and practice alternate ways of learning(Lown, & Hawkins, 2017; Revell & McCurry, 2010).There are many tools and techniques used bynursing faculty to identify gaps in student knowledge,reinforce learning, and improve standardizedexamination scores. There are many ways studentlearning is assessed, and among these are adaptivequizzing and computerized testing with remediationwhich provide baseline data that help faculty gaugestudent preparedness and readiness for additionalcontent. There is an ever-growing body of literature onvarious strategies employed by faculty to increase thelikelihood that students will pass the NCLEX-RN, thegateway to nursing practice, on the first attempt. In aretrospective study of 761 nursing students from onerural, public state university, Palmer, Shanty, Labant,and Rossiter (2017) reported that a significantly highnumber of students reached the established programbenchmark when the answers and rationale feature wasturned off in practice assessment exams within severalcourses. However, students had the option to utilize thereview topic feature, which was found to be morebeneficial to student success. Faculty can readilytranslate this strategy to structured NCLEX-RNpreparation activities which would most likely be ofbenefit to students as they prepare for the exam.Additionally, establishing solid baseline data enablesprograms to chart how well students learn over time andinforms curricular changes, which contribute to learningimprovement for students in the program, as well as forthe program itself (Maki, 2002).Blozen (2017) incorporated semi-structuredinterviews in a qualitative study to identify factors thatfacilitate and inhibit student success in an acceleratednursing program and the pathway to NCLEX-RNsuccess. Strategies employed included practicingNCLEX-RN style questions, clinical experiences,faculty support, and a review course. StudentCollaborative Higher Education Partnership118participants reported that the most helpful strategyleading to success was answering NCLEX-RN stylequestions. To a lesser extent, clinical experiences andfamily, faculty, and peer support contributed to passingthe exam. The relationship between critical thinkingskills as a predictor of NCLEX-RN success has beenexplored a limited number of times (Facione & Facione,1997; Giddens & Gloeckner, 2005; Romeo, 2010;Shirrell, 2008). Kaddoura, Van Dyke and Yang (2017)gathered data from one accelerated nursing program fora retrospective, ex post facto descriptive study. Entry andexit Health Education Systems Incorporated (HESI)critical thinking test (CT) scores of 110 acceleratedstudents were analyzed. Findings indicated that entryand exit critical thinking skills scores were significantpredictors of first-time successful pass rates.Whereas the role of faculty members is crucial incourse design, writing learning objectives, andconsidering proper assessment of student learning, theremust be accountability from both faculty and highereducation leadership to sustain efforts (Liu, Bridgeman& Adler, 2012). Specific principles for effectiveassessment include embedding assessment intoinstitutional processes, securing support fromadministrative leadership, making resources availablefor faculty while supporting the professionaldevelopment of faculty and staff members, providing avision for assessment, encouraging space for discussionand collaboration, engaging ownership of assessment,and sharing information widely regarding assessment.(Baker, Jankowski, Provezis & Kinzie, 2012). The roleof administrative support to student success is critical,especially in the addressing of motivational problems offaculty, ensuring of adequate resources affecting facultyworkload, and “buy-in” of faculty to student learningassessment strategies. In higher education there must beclear goals and continual work toward improving results.Factors affecting faculty members’ motivation includeincreasing confidence in teaching ability and assessmentpractices; removing unnecessary policies, procedures, orbarriers; and supporting the development of faculty’sstrong interest value (Liu et al., 2012; Sujitparapitaya,2014). Hutchings (2010) addresses challenges inachieving faculty involvement. To promote facultyinvolvement, institutional leadership must providenumerous ways to align assessment with the scholarlywork of faculty, incorporate assessment into the regularwork of teaching and learning, create a safe andsustained place for faculty development, and createspaces and occasions for constructive assessmentconversation and action.The Learning Improvement TeamMaki (2002) addresses the importance of assessmentbecoming a collective means whereby colleagues discover