Blended learning: Assessing nursing students' perspectives

• Published in: Curationis (Pretoria) Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. e1 - 8
• Main Authors: Steenkamp, Ilze, Chipps, Jennifer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: South Africa African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS 05-07-2024; AOSIS (Pty) Ltd; AOSIS; Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
• Subjects: Adult; Biology; Blended learning; College campuses; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - nursing; COVID-19 - psychology; Data collection; Disease transmission; Distance learning; Education parks; Education, Distance - methods; Education, Distance - standards; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate - methods; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate - standards; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate - statistics & numerical data; Equipment and supplies; Ethics; Female; Health Care Sciences & Services; Health Policy & Services; Humans; Independent sample; Male; Nursing; Nursing education; Nursing schools; Nursing students; online; Online instruction; Original Research; Pandemics; Perceptions; Questionnaires; SARS-CoV-2; School environment; School facilities; South Africa; Students; Students, Nursing - psychology; Students, Nursing - statistics & numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching; Young Adult; South Africa; COVID-19; blended learning; online; perceptions; nursing students
• ISSN: 0379-8577; 2223-6279; 2223-6279
• DOI: 10.4102/curationis.v47i1.2579

 Blended learning combines face-to-face and online learning and has recently gained popularity, accelerated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, often without active evaluation.
 This study aimed to assess university nursing students' perceptions of a blended learning approach during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 The population was 150 third-year nursing students from a university in the Western Cape, South Africa, using all-inclusive sampling. A one-group, pre-and post-evaluation study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire (Student Perceptions of Blended Learning scale). Differences were assessed using Chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U tests with a significance level of p  0.05.
 Before implementing blended learning, 128 students (85.3%) completed the questionnaire, while 95 (63.3%) did so after. Demographics and access showed no significant differences between the groups. Post-implementation showed a 10.1% increase in preference for blended learning (χ2 = 2.832, p = 0.092). Ease of use was rated significantly higher before implementation (3.07 ± 0.49), with no significant change post-implementation (2.99 ± 0.58). The blended learning process received lower ratings compared to content, with no significant differences before or after implementation for either (process: 2.55 ± 0.58 vs 2.54 ± 0.63; content: 2.75 ± 0.52 vs 2.79 ± 0.52).
 Nursing students had a positive perception of blended learning, though the online learning component posed challenges with time and module comprehension.Contribution: The findings can help higher education institutions evaluate existing online management systems and guide nurse educators in meeting students' needs when developing module resources.