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Evelyn Stephenson,
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
In teaching online courses, assessing the impact
of educational practices on intended outcomes is important to
determine the success of student learning. This study examines
the relationship between the educational practices of active
learning, feedback, student-faculty interaction, and interaction
and collaboration with peers and the intended outcomes of
satisfaction, connectedness, and professionalism in an online
neonatal intensive care course.
My university, IUPUI, developed an online course
as an orientation to the neonatal intensive area. The course
design is diverse enough to accommodate undergraduate nursing
students, novice nurses and the experienced nurse who is looking
for a practice area change. Although some online courses
consist of little more than readings and quizzes, this course
design emphasized active learning in a variety of forms.
Learning activities included matching exercises, asking
reflective questions, problem identification, problem solving,
answering critical thinking vignettes, and exploring Web links.
The course was also designed to include ways to interact with
the students and enable the students to interact with one
another. I also tried to
increase a sense of connectedness among students by asking
interactive questions and by responding to discussion postings
made by each student.
Our study was designed to test whether these
practices resulted in improved learning outcomes. Flashlight’s
“Evaluating Educational Uses of the Web in Nursing” (EEUWIN)
instrument was used to collect data for this study. Findings
showed a strong correlation between educational practices and
intended outcomes. Our study found that the more students
engaged in active learning, the more often they received
feedback, and the more often they interacted with others online,
the better the outcomes they reported. For example, students who
most engaged in these practices were also most likely to report
a sense of professionalism, a sense of feeling connected with
others, and high satisfaction with the course.
The results of this study indicate that the
educational practices of active learning, feedback, interaction
between students and faculty, and collaboration/interaction with
peers have a direct impact on the intended outcomes of this
course. Course design and faculty presence in the course helped
to achieve intended outcomes. Based on these findings I
increased the number of learning activities and reflective
practice questions.
Additional research is needed to assess the
outcome of higher learning for nursing students. As online
courses become more common, the increased need for answers to
the outcomes of web-based learning will be more obvious. Nursing
faculty doing studies like this one should be able to use their
findings to improve their online courses.
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