Nursing Education and Learning management systems, Virtual or Course learning environments and Learning Portals
Online Learning Communities For Online and Distant Education
Online learning uses the Internet paired with various types of software such as learning management systems (LMSs), learning content management systems, learning portals, e-learning platforms, virtual learning environments (VLEs), or course management systems (CMSs) (Wright, Lopes, Montgomerie, Reju , & Schmoller, 2014).
These terms are similar but not identical. The LMS enables the creation of a learning environment in which a community of learners and educators, as well as other content experts such as clinicians and patients, gather for the purposes of teaching and learning (Babenko Mould , Andrusyszyn , & Goldenberg, 2004; Jafari , McGee, & Carmean, 2006).
Online learning takes place in a VLE that is created by an LMS (eg, Blackboard's Learn, Desire2Learn's Brightspace, Instructure's Canvas, Pearson's Learning Studio, and open-source Moodle). But the LMSs are aging and are, on average, at least 8 years old (Dahlstrom, Brooks, & Bichsel, 2014).
Although features abound, faculty and students report an underutilization phenomenon when it comes to engagement and collaboration. This is related to user attitudes that they are ill equipped to use any but the basic features of the LMS. Digital literacy does not necessarily transfer to mastering the LMS.
The demand is increasing for platforms to be adaptable, friendly, customizable, integrated, intuitive, and, of paramount importance, mobile (Dahlstrom et al., 2014). For most part, the LMS stores content, delivers quizzes, helps distribute assignments, facilitates communication, and publishes grades.
Users report they want the LMS to do a better job with instant messaging, video chatting, online tutoring, social networking, grading, accessing multimedia, and alerting them to the need to post and turn in assignments.
The Next Generation of Digital Learning Environments Initiative, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been established to identify why higher education is using outdated technology, and how to replace it ( Straumsheim , 2014).
These VLEs are designed to enhance collaboration and interaction through use of shared workspaces and mobile wireless devices and to provide a full complement of learner support through access to academic advisers, mentors, preceptors, and librarians.
The LMSs also typically include assessment and evaluation software such as test generation and administration software, plagiarism detection software, portfolio management software, and online grade books with grade calculation.
Additionally, the online learning environment is becoming more integrated with campus services such as the bursar and registrar, thus enabling students to register for courses and receive grades and transcripts (Nelson et al., 2006).
The burgeoning number of features and options has led to LMS vendors positioning themselves as solutions providers who will evaluate the customer's needs and propose custom approaches that the vendor will integrate seamlessly into the LMS. In nursing education, online learning is frequently used to offer individual courses and complete degree programs for academic credit.
In clinical settings, online learning may be used to facilitate orientation to clinical practice, meet requirements for mandatory continuing education, and create learning communities to support career development, mentoring, and coaching programs for nurses (Billings et al., 2006; Pullen, 2006 ).
Online learning is a popular means by which nurses participate in lifelong learning and obtain continuing education contact hours. Educators and learners use the capabilities of online learning in various ways. For example, content may be developed in self-contained learning modules or tutorials.
Online learning modules typically contain learning outcomes, learning activities, and an evaluation component. Because of their self-contained nature, learning modules are flexible and lend themselves to multiple uses. For example, learning modules are useful for providing access to information that can be learned without interaction with faculty or classmates and colleagues.
Learning modules can also be used to provide clinical updates, “mandatory” education required in clinical agencies, or background material in preparation for higher-order application in a classroom or clinical setting. Modules are often integrated into classroom or online courses as reusable learning objects (RLOs), predeveloped content with objectives, content, and evaluation that can be used in courses as required or optional learning activities.
It is increasingly common for RLOs to accompany textbooks as ancillary teaching materials; they are also available from web-based learning resource repositories such as MERLOT. Online learning can occur in a variety of configurations to support learning in a course. The courses may be designed to be offered fully online, as full web courses, in which faculty and students do not meet in person.
Typically these are courses that primarily include didactic content, but increasingly clinical courses with a preceptor are offered fully online. The preceptor is usually a qualified clinician in the student's geographic region who facilitates application of the course concepts in a clinical setting.
Online courses can also be developed to integrate with face-to-face meetings in classrooms or clinical practice. These blended courses, also referred to as web-enhanced, web-supported, or hybrid courses, combine the benefits of face-to-face, classroom, or clinical experiences with the OLC (Bonk & Graham, 2005).
Here, the educator uses online assignments such as pretests or case studies to assess student knowledge and facilitate learning course concepts before students participate in face-to-face classroom activities. The educator may even decide to deliver a short online video or audio stream on selected course concepts prior to class.
Students can receive feedback about their learning before they come to the classroom, and thus faculty and students are better prepared to use classroom time to clarify misunderstood concepts or focus on more complex problems such as those related to developing clinical decision-making skills. Blended courses can use a combination of technologies to meet the needs of students.
For example, for those students who are enrolled in the course but live far away from the campus, one-way or two-way web based video conferencing may be used to “connect” students to the class during the times of on-campus class meetings.
The aim of blended learning is to take advantage of faculty expertise, the learning management toolkit, and just-in-time learning to provide learners with opportunities to learn and apply content, practice and receive feedback, think critically, and assume the role of the nurse across all domains of learning.
The educator must make well thought-out decisions as to which experiences should be held in the classroom and which should be held in the OLC. Interactions in online learning may occur asynchronously or synchronously, depending on the desired nature of the interaction. Asynchronous interactions are those that do not depend on time and place.
E-mail, threaded discussions in discussion forums, podcasts, and archived video and audio streams are examples of interactions that are asynchronous. Participants involved in an asynchronous interaction can choose to access or respond to the communication at a time that is convenient for them. Synchronous interactions are those that occur in real time and require participants to be available at a specific time to participate in the discussions.
Class meetings using live video conferencing, chat rooms, or webcasts (use of Internet to share information on a desktop through the use of web based conferencing software) are examples of synchronous interactions. It is also possible to use e-mail or instant messaging in a synchronous fashion, if those involved in the e-mail messaging prearrange the time for sending and responding to the messages.
Electronic “office hours” during which the faculty member is available to promptly answer any student e-mails sent during that period is an example of using e-mail in a synchronous fashion.
Regardless of the type of online course the faculty member is teaching, it is important to remember that it is the use of educational practices such as interaction between students and faculty, interaction among classmates, opportunity to receive feedback while learning, and respect for diverse ways of learning that promote interaction, prevent isolation, and ultimately determine students' satisfaction with the learning experience and the attainment of intended outcomes.
The remainder of this chapter provides information that will help faculty to successfully plan, implement, and evaluate learning experiences that will promote the development of OLCs .
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