TRANSFORMING TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Rationale. Graduate nursing courses are increasingly offered online; educators of the future will need to be technologically adept to meet the needs of increasingly diverse learners. National organizations, including the National League for Nursing, the Institute of Medicine, and others recognize the need for future generations of nurses to be increasingly technologically competent which requires technological competence from current and future educators. Constructivist learning theory provides a relevant theoretical foundation for use of technology to transform teaching/learning.
Methods: Nursing education and core graduate courses were infused with assignments and expected outcomes related to technology. Already online courses, additional planned technology (virtual poster presentation, eRole play and eDebate) assisted students in gaining expertise and confidence in using technology. Second Life, a virtual reality, was used to develop presentation skills as students presented an electronic poster to classmates, faculty and invited guests. An e-Role Play involved participation in a simulated faculty meeting scenario discussing legal and interpersonal issues in education; e-Debate encouraged teamwork in exploration of ideas, developing arguments and debate responses, and critiquing others’ arguments. Each of the three activities were conducted and evaluated using evidence based practices to ensure that they were student centered, theoretically based, accessible and promoted reflection.
Outcomes: Four different courses, over a two year period, involved 36 students each participating in at least two of three technological approaches. The e-role play and the virtual poster session occurred in nursing education courses preparing DNP and master’s students for the educator role. eDebate was used in a DNP core course, Epidemiology. E-Role Play and eDebate occurred using discussion board with 16 and 15 students, respectively. The virtual poster session, n=8, occurred in the virtual environment, a university created Second Life setting. Formative evaluation of the strategies indicated that technology difficulties occurred but can be managed with technology support, and carefully designed guidelines for the projects. Summative evaluation, student satisfaction with teaching/learning strategies, revealed positive (> 4.5 on scale with 5 being extremely satisfied) evaluations with comments indicating a heightened appreciation of both the content of the course, e.g., the curricular planning or ethical issues facing faculty, as well as the use of the technology, e.g., presenting a virtual poster session, using a threaded discussion in a discussion board. Reflections included that students gained awareness of the faculty role dealing with student challenges, the importance of school policies, and the excitement of presenting to peers. Of note, most students commented that they enjoyed feeling more connected to classmates through the use of real time experiences for learning.
Conclusions: Modifying established teaching strategies for online and virtual environments result in accessible innovative technological strategies that can transform the educational experience for aspiring educators who will be the nursing faculty of the future. Further study of student outcomes, particularly knowledge and skill acquisition, are needed to enhance and refine technology use in the online and traditional course environment.