Creativity In Online learning In Nursing Education

Online Learning and Creativity In Nursing Education

Online Learning and Creativity,Creativity In Online Learning In Nursing Education,Popularity of Online Learning In Nursing Education,Online Learning as a Need of Nursing Profession.

Online Learning and Creativity

    Online learning is a term used to distinguish traditional classroom learning and distance learning in which they are separated by geography (O'Neill, Fisher, Newbold, & Susan, 2008). Creativity is the ability to make new things or think of new ideas.

Creativity In Online Learning In Nursing Education

    Creativity in the online environment is extremely important in order not to make it an isolated experience and instead keep the learner engaged. There are many ways to provide a creative online environment. In fact, the higher the participation in an online course, the higher the satisfaction ratings are with the students (Mitchell, Ryan, Carson, & McCann, 2007). Therefore, there are many ways to engage students through asynchronous and synchronous learning.

    Most nursing courses are designed to be asynchronous. Some strategies have been identified to have a creative collaborative learning environment for asynchronous learning. First, the faculty has to become familiar with the course management system to use it to its highest capability. A contract with the students' expectations should be posted, which allows both students and educators to have clear expectations with the particular course. 

    Another way to help the experience not to be so isolated is to have an icebreaker exercise during the first week of class such as having students explain how familiar or comfortable they are with online learning (Vitale, 2010).In addition to the usual Power Points with notes, readings, learning objectives, and assignments/quizzes or tests, discussion groups regarding the topics each week are critical. Other ways to engage students is to have a cyberspace office to stay connected to the instructor and class lounge so that students can interact with each other online. 

    A wiki is a collaborative website that can be edited by anyone assigned to it. It works well with group assignments or a whole class final project. It is imperative that the educator gives continuous feedback and interacts with the students in every discussion or assignment.Synchronous online learning requires a tool such as web-based video conferencing in order for everyone to interact at the same time from his or her various locations Synchronous online learning allows for immediate feedback and immediate social support. 

    Learning can be done via audios video, web based conferencing, or white boarding ( Giesbers , Rienties , Tempelaar , & Giselaers , 2014) Furthermore, instant messaging can be used in communicating between students and virtual office hours for face-to-face time with the nurse educator Research suggests that adding asynchronous learning to synchronous learning is the most beneficial way to engage learners, but there is limited research ( Giesbers et al., 2014).

Popularity of Online Learning In Nursing Education

    Online learning is becoming more popular in nursing education. There is overall satisfaction with online courses (Halter, Kleiner, & Hess, 2006, Mitchell et al, 2007). However, there are still some students who prefer the traditional classroom, face-to-face model (Stiffler, 2008). A benchmark study showed that the more active learning and faculty-student interaction, the better the students learned the material (Billings, Connors, & Skiba, 2001). Students become more autonomous and take charge in what and how they learn (Lewis & Price, 2007). Social isolation has been noted in the literature as present and not present. 

    In one study, researchers reported that students felt remote and out of touch (Atack, 2003). Yet, in another study, researchers reported a very social atmosphere for learning (Farrell, Cubit, Bobrowski, & Salmon, 2007). Overall, in order for online learning to be successful, there needs to be a well-developed program with interactive discussions or tutorials to develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that nurses need. Also, there needs to be an environment of clear communication and continuous feedback from both the educator and the student (Bonnel, 2008; Bromley, 2010).

Online Learning as a Need of Nursing Profession

    The nursing profession has a responsibility to keep up with the constant changes in information technology in order to provide up-to-date evidence based practice guidelines. In order to do so, educators have to come up with creative ways to keep their students engaged in the online environment. There are many teaching strategies and online teaching platforms that are used to teach.

    It is important for the teacher and the students to be familiar with the technology in order to provide creative ways to showcase the learning material. Nurse educators need to integrate online learning activities in order for the students to understand the material but not to lose the importance of communication involved in the nurse-patient relationship. In order for this to be successful, there needs to be tremendous technological support and instructional classes for the faculty (Vitale, 2010).

    This area is very much in need of scholarly inquiry. There are very few studies that analyze the nursing students' knowledge, use, and outcomes of the online learning environment and identify which creative ways of teaching have the most positive effects on the learners.