Exploring the Use of Formative Measures for the Comprehensive Evaluation of a Nursing Computer Assisted Learning (N-CAL) Package: Challenging the Traditional Approach to N-CAL Package Construction, Evaluation and Use

McCormac, Kathleen (1991) Exploring the Use of Formative Measures for the Comprehensive Evaluation of a Nursing Computer Assisted Learning (N-CAL) Package: Challenging the Traditional Approach to N-CAL Package Construction, Evaluation and Use. MLitt(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Nursing Computer Assisted Learning (N-CAL) has been described as an innovative and unique teaching method by those who have directed the development of N-CAL during the 1980s. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of this instructional technique having contributed to the education of nurses in the UK. Indeed, there is evidence of N-CAL declining in popularity. This thesis examines why N-CAL has failed to impact a nursing curriculum in the UK. A need to change from the traditional approach to N-CAL package construction, evaluation and use is required if N-CAL is to contribute in a more significant way within a nurse education curriculum in the future. Whilst evaluation is seen as an integral element of the development of N-CAL packages a survey of existing evaluation processes of N-CAL does not reveal a strategy which could be readily applied during the production of N-CAL materials. A more exhaustive approach to evaluation, however, is utilised through the adoption of an analytical framework developed within health care itself and various measures from the field of Human-Computer Interaction are used within this framework. Evaluation methods are explored, using an N-CAL package as a vehicle, to identify the extent to which these methods provide detailed and informative information to contribute to the construction of an N-CAL package. This thesis will report on progress towards the development of an N-CAL package which simulates nursing practice, thereby exploiting the claimed potential of computers in nurse education. The development of a complex package such as this, however, requires extensive evaluation to ensure that its complexity does not interfere with the nurse learners' ability to access the information it contains. In addition, evaluation is necessary to ensure that the N-CAL package represent the nursing practice it attempts to simulate. Before complex N-CAL packages can be put in place methods of evaluating them must be first be identified. The aim of this thesis is to extensively evaluate an N-CAL package during its production. This is an area which has largely been neglected by N-CAL and this neglect has been a contributory factor in its demise.

• Item Type: Thesis (MLitt(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Nursing, Health education, Educational technology, Medical personnel
• Date of Award: 1991
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1991-78421
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 28 Feb 2020 12:09
• Last Modified: 28 Feb 2020 12:09
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/78421