Preliminary evaluation of the learning outcome on the "Nursing Research Seminar" course for doctoral students
Resource
The Journal of Nursing Research v.16 n.2 pp.87-96
Journal
The Journal of Nursing Research
Journal Volume
v.16
Journal Issue
n.2
Pages
87-96
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
LOU, MEEI-FANG
CHEN, YUEH-CHIH
Abstract
Educational evaluation is one of the priority policies of the Ministry of Education. Students learning outcome is an important criterion in evaluation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the learning outcome of a newly developed course entitled “Nursing Research Seminar” for doctoral students. It was a semester course, 2 hours per week. Learning outcome was based on the understanding level of the objectives of the course. Six objectives of the course were : Evaluating and integrating research papers, enhancing skills in critical thinking, having an in-depth understanding of the literature related to topics of interested, facilitating students’ abilities to construct their own research proposals, guiding students during the process of their dissertation work and refining skills in research process. Data were collected from 25 student’sresponses to a 5-point Likert-type evaluation form based on course objectives at the last class of the course. Descriptive and non- parametric statistics were adopted. The results showed: (1) Overall, the post-course score (24.76 ±2.89) was statistically significant higher than the pre- course score (18.40 ± 5.52); (2) Students had significant improvement in all of the six objectives at the end of the course; (3) There were statistically significant differences in the improvement scores in all of the six objectives among students in different years of doctoral program; (4) The lower the year in the program, the higher the improvement scores for each course objective; (5) The leading improvement among six objectives was “having an in- depth understanding of the literature related to topics of interested”, and ”enhancing skills in critical thinking”.Because of the small sample size, any conclusions drawn from this study are only tentative. The findings provide preliminary information in the importance and necessity of offering the course for nursing doctoral students. The course provided different beneficiaries to different year of students. It was concluded that the course could continue to be offered.
Subjects
doctoral nursing education
nursing research seminar
learning outcome