We have been seeing this phrase, or something like it, more often these days. There are quite a few instructors at NMC that have delved into this idea of Mastery Learning. I have been using this principle with my courses in conjunction with gamification.

Using new pedagogies is thrilling and terrifying all at once. I think I am doing something worthwhile and beneficial…. will our stakeholders? Luckily, I also sit on the Nursing Advisory Board and I get to discuss specifically what I am doing in my courses with one of our biggest stakeholders in the area, Munson. Since I teach courses that feed into the Nursing Program, I certainly want to make sure that what I do will be a benefit to my students as they enter into a rigorous program.

At a recent Nursing Advisory Board meeting I shared with the rest of the Board members the whole process of gamificaiton, and what students are expected to do, and what they can do. When I was finished, I held my breath to wait for the reaction. Would they see benefit in this method? Would they think this was a terrible waste of time? Would they think NMC was not preparing students properly?

One of the first questions from a Board member was, “So students can fail and learn from those failures and still be successful in the course?”

“Yes,” I replied still holding my breath.

“That’s cool.”