Addition of discussion board assignment increases standardized test scores

Joint Event on 4^th World Congress on Nursing Education & Research & Annual Congress on Child Care: Mental Health, Psychology & Nursing

April 12-13, 2019 | Toronto, Canada

Angela D Saathoff

Bryant & Stratton College, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Nursing educators are often looking for interventions to increase the learnerâ??s experience and ability to retain information. The site institution uses a comprehensive adaptive learning system which provides a standardized exam for many sub-nursing topics such as community and leadership. It was noted learners had a lower average score on the community content than many other topics. For the Fall 2017 Term, the community content was added to the Nursing Issues, Leadership and Research course. The community content consisted of assigned reading material, two quizzes, and one lecture on mass triage. The first cohort (n=13) yielded and adjusted group score of 72.6% with a group national percentile rank of 59. The second cohort (n=16) yielded and adjusted group score of 73.6% with a group national percentile rank of 65. For the Spring term 2018, an additional community discussion board assignment was added. The discussion assignment involved each student providing a comprehensive post on a specific assigned topic. Two other learners were responsible for validating the material in the initial post and adding any missing information. The learners could then use the entire discussion post as a study guide with assurance the material was accurate. This post-intervention cohort (n=27) yielded and adjusted group score of 77.7% with a group national percentile rank of 87. As the only additional intervention between the first two cohorts and the last was the implementation of a community discussion board assignment it is reasonable to contribute the 4.1% increase in adjust group score to this intervention.

Biography :

Saathoff lives in Virginia with her husband and daughter. She has an Associate in Science degree from Rock Valley Community College and a Bachelors of Science from Northern Illinois University with major in Biology. Dr. Saathoff earned her Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Mississippi College and a Masters of Science-Nursing from University of Mississippi Medical Center. Her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree is from the University of South Alabama. She currently teaches Pharmacology at Bryant & Stratton College and is a nurse practitioner in retail medicine.

E-mail: adsaathoff@bryantstratton.edu