The digital age: A scoping review of nursing students´ perceptions of the use of online discussion boards
Beskrivelse
I denne systematiske oversikten har forfatterne fokusert på bruken av diskusjonsforum på nett i utdanning av sykepleiere. Forfatterne identifiserer faktorer som kan bidra til økt engasjement og faktorer som kan bidra til mindre engasjement på diskusjonsforum. Det blir understreket at det trengs mer forskning for å bedre forstå hvordan diskusjonsforum brukes best mulig i undervisning.
Background: In response to the ongoing challenges of managing large student enrolments, and an increasing demand from students for innovative, online learning platforms, virtual learning and teaching strategies are increasingly common in tertiary education. This is focused in undergraduate courses, including in professional areas of study such as nursing. These can be used both as engagement and as assessment tools, and these platforms can include online interactive components such as discussion boards. However, to date no study has synthesized and critiqued the literature to identify how undergraduate nursing students perceive discussion boards in relation to their learning.
Methods: Acknowledging this gap in knowledge and understanding, we sought to use a scoping review methodology to critically explore and investigate literature reporting on the use of nursing students’ perceptions of online discussion boards in undergraduate nursing education, both as learning platforms and as part of undergraduate assessment.
Results: Seven publications met the inclusion criteria and comprised seven primary research studies; three were quantitative, two qualitative and two used a mixed-methods design. Four publications were American, two were from continental Europe and one was from Pakistan. Quality appraisal using the MMAT showed low to medium quality for the studies. Two key domains pertaining to undergraduate nurses’ perceptions of discussion boards were identified: (A) Discussion boards can promote learner engagement and (B) discussion boards can promote learner disengagement.
Conclusion: While online discussion boards show great promise, there is clearly a need for a more in-depth examination of the impact of using discussion boards on student engagement in undergraduate nursing curricula. Of paramount importance is the need for a better understanding of the factors that enhance student engagement, compared to the factors that promote disengagement.
Denne systematiske oversikten er utarbeidet på en god måte og forfatterne har vært tydelig på metoden de har brukt for å utarbeide oversikten. Forfatterne har vurdert kvaliteten til de inkluderte studiene ved bruk av ‘mixed methods assessment tool (MMAT)’ og bruker dette aktivt i diskusjonen av funnene.