Thursday, January 19, 2012

Nursing Faculty Responding Online to Students

All too often I hear faculty lamenting over the massive amounts of emails they receive and the struggle to keep up with communication with students. In this digital age, faculty must learn how to harness the power of email tools while also being able to provide meaningful feedback to students.

Situation: "A descriptive exploratory study of experienced faculty best practices in providing feedback to students in online courses."
Background: In the digital age, students are steadily being required to transform into an online learner. Rather than a trial and error method in email threads, discussion boards, and other recently developed tools, faculty must adhere to a best practice approach to provide feedback that the student can incorporate into their learning adventures.

Abstract: "As nurses seek to advance their education through online courses, considering best practices in feedback is especially important. Rich and rapid feedback has long been considered a best teaching practice, but how to provide this feedback in an online course environment is not always clear. This study was conducted to identify how experienced faculty provide feedback to online students."

Review: A thorough literature review covers the following areas with brief references:

  • Online Staff Development
  • Student Evaluation of online feedback
  • Tools for online feedback in Web Based Courses
  • Educational Theories applied to online feedback
The research questions being asked revolved around what are good practices being used today by faculty and to measure their effectiveness. A two phased descriptive study explored the 5 schools in four different states. The average teaching experience among participants was about 21 years. Results were organized into 15 themes in 3 categories. For more info about results, please refer to the article. 

The authors conclude by recommending the use of best practices for incorporating learning and teaching in a digital format. Such guidelines can be used in multiple education arenas varying from undergraduate to continuing education or even staff development. 


Article Referenced

Wanda, B., & Boehm, H. (2011). Improving Feedback to Students Online: Teaching Tips From Experienced Faculty. Journal Of Continuing Education In Nursing, 42(11), 503-509.

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