PEDAGOGICAL COMPETENCE AMONGST

FACULTY IN (NURSING) PROGRAMS

TRANSITIONING TO DISTANCE DELIVERY

A Critical Review

by Renia Nissan and Kelli Ralph

SEARCH STRATEGY

How was the article selected?

A peer-reviewed journal article search was done by

utilizing the Athabasca Library databases. Amongst

those that resulted, an article was chosen that best

reflected nursing and online or distance education

research done in the last decade.

ARTICLE REVIEWED

Vioral, A. (2013). Exploring pedagogical competence in a

distance education program: A case study. Journal of

Nursing Education and Practice, 3(9), 36-47. doi:

10.5430/jnep.v3n9p36

SUMMARY OF ARTICLE

ISSUES:

General Issue: Pedagogical competence in programs transitioning to distance delivery

Specific issues highlighted/addressed in article:

Worldwide nursing and faculty shortages

Introduction of technology-mediated distance education in nursing

Faculty hired based on need, not based on pedagogical preparation and competence

Faculty must learn new pedagogical roles to develop and implement distance education that incorporates the use of technology

STUDY OBJECTIVE

Describe how online nursing programs deliver

education to meet the NLN Nurse Educator Core

Competencies and the iNACOL National

Standards of Quality for Online Courses

How are nursing programs addressing

pedagogical competency standards set by the

NLN and iNACOL

METHODOLOGY

Case study design

Enabled simultaneous data collection and analysis

Purposive Sampling

Inclusion Criteria

Nursing programs in US that had been awarded the NLN

Center of Excellence Award twice in past decade

Offered online BSN, MSN, PHD, and/or DNP programs

Target Sample Size: N=6

(1 administrator and 1 faculty member from 3 institutions)

METHODOLOGY: INSTRUMENTS

Data Collection: Mixed-Methods Approach

Quantitative data: Pre-interview Surveys Nursing Administrator Self-Assessment Survey of Quality for Online

Courses

Nursing Faculty Self-Assessment Survey of Quality for Online Courses

Qualitative data: Audio-taped Interviews (30-60 minutes) Guided interview questions

Example: “Describe specific nursing faculty requirements for the development of online courses in your institution”

“Additional data”: Administrative documents Nursing program strategic plan, CCNE self-study report, program and

institution mission statements, NLN Center of Excellence application, assessment tools utilizing in conjunction with tenure decisions)

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK APPLIED

Contingency Leadership Theory

Focuses on relationship between an organization and the

environment

Effective patterns of organizational structure and behaviour are

contingent on environmental and task demands

Changes in an environment require appropriate changes in

patterns of the organization to deal with the environment

Application to DE: Successful DE programs are contingent on

three interconnected variables:

Technological environment

Pedagogical competence

Leadership

STUDY FINDINGS / INTERPRETATIONS

Themes Identified:

Technological Environment

Pedagogy

Leadership

Applied the Contingency Leadership Theory

framework to link these emergent themes

STRENGTHS OF THE ARTICLE/STUDY

STRENGTHS OF ARTICLE/STUDY

Article was well written, well organized with section headings, and easy to follow

Rich review of literature

Applied the Contingency Leadership Theory as a theoretical framework Appropriate and relevant for research regarding institutional

and organizational processes

Provided rationale for utilizing case study design, grounded in the background literature

Research questions were relevant to the general issues and addressed a gap in existing literature

STRENGTHS OF ARTICLE/STUDY

Study followed standard protocols for case study design

Defined the study’ target participants, measures, and protocols for data collection and analysis Provided rationale for the inclusion criteria with links to background literature

Adequate detail provided to enable study to be replicated

Detailed description of how categories and themes emerged from the data Application of pattern-matching logic and idealized theoretic patterns as

comparators to maximize internal validity

The findings flow from the data and appropriately address the research questions

Findings provide insights that may be relevant / generalizable to other distance education programs

WEAKNESSES OF THE ARTICLE/STUDY

LIMITATIONS AND WEAKNESSES OF

ARTICLE/STUDY

No rationale provided for target sample size (N=6)

Small sample size recruited (N=2)

Homogeneous, from a single program/institution

Additional participants not recruited due to time constraints of the

researcher

Limited the richness and internal validity of the study

Including participants representing other roles in the DE team – at

minimum, an instructional designer – would have strengthened this study

Participant bias in quantitative and qualitative data:

No anonymity

Full disclosure impeded by fear of retribution

Why wasn’t this identified and dealt with during the ethics review

process?

LIMITATIONS AND WEAKNESSES OF

ARTICLE/STUDY

Survey bias?

Author makes contradictory statements:

States the surveys do encompass NLN & iNACOL standards

States the surveys do not encompass NLN & iNACOL

standards

What was the rationale for using these surveys?

LIMITATIONS AND WEAKNESSES OF

ARTICLE/STUDY

Superficial use of combined quantitative and qualitative data

Surveys ultimately provided little value beyond collecting

demographic data

Unclear how “interview data was used to validate survey data”, as

author claims

BUT, as a limitation, author describes that this study didn’t include activities

to validate the survey tools used

Survey results do not appear to be included in the analysis

For instance, Table 1. summarizes identified themes and categories, but did

these emerge solely from the guided interview questions listed in the table?

Pattern-matching logic and idealized theoretic patterns as

comparators are not described

“Additional data” collected from administrative documents reported

descriptively, but with unclear link to study analysis and findings

LIMITATIONS AND WEAKNESSES OF

ARTICLE/STUDY

Author suggests case study design limits

generalizability of this study’s findings

However!!!

Application of Contingency Leadership Theory

contribution to this study’s generalizability

IMPORTANCE AND RELEVANCE

RELEVANCE TO DISTANCE EDUCATION

Explores topics of great importance to the study of distance education because it provides insights on the supports and barriers to successfully implementing distance programs that center learning around the student

Provides evidence-based information that can inform program/institutional processes and policies for preparing and supporting faculty teaching in the online setting

Presents a specific target for nursing program leadership for supporting/improving the pedagogical competence of their faculty:

Implement NLN and iNACOL competency standards, or standards of good practice based on these

RELEVANCE TO DISTANCE EDUCATION

Contributes to existing literature by providing an alternative view focusing on the levels of preparedness amongst DE faculty

Addresses a gap in the existing research literature

Provides background and a mandate for future research

Corroborates previous research that identifies structure, organization and consistency as critical factors in improving student learning outcomes

CONCLUSION

The article served the purpose of focusing on the

study of distance education while exploring the

professional discipline of nursing, and the

barriers and resources available to successfully

implementing education, in an online setting

It served as a basis for further research that

accounts for centering student learning, while

improving the resources, in this case the faculty

Please follow the link below to view our cognitive

map, which provides more details of our review.

This cognitive map represents a visual-based

knowledge object co-created using a Web 2.0 tool.

http://www.mindmeister.com/420923693

AND……..

COGNITIVE MAP…

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Please read, reflect on and respond to at least 2 of the following questions:

Is specific training in distance/online education the best way to ensure pedagogical competence amongst faculty? Why or why not. How and what alternatives might effectively facilitate the development of pedagogical competence in developing and delivering distance/online education?

Would you recommend that faculty undertake specific pedagogical training in developing and delivering distance/online education? Why or why not. What would a training program for faculty look like? What topics and skills development would it cover?

In what ways might students be impacted by the differences in pedagogical competencies between faculty who have undertaken vs. not undertaken specific training in developing and delivering distance/online education? Do you think training makes a difference? Why or why not.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How have technological environment, instructional design, instructor

pedagogical competence, and program administrative structures supported

and/or impeded your own learning in distance/online courses?

What learning barriers have you experienced in your distance/online courses,

and how might they have been prevented/resolved? What elements have

provided the best support to your learning?

What insights does this study provide regarding the different roles

(administrative/leadership, instructional design, technical support, faculty)

involved in developing and delivering a distance education program/course?

Why are these roles critical, and what might be the consequences be if one of

these roles were absent? Is leadership the most critical role? Why or why not?

How might the findings of this case study of one online nursing program be

relevant (or not relevant) to distance education in other disciplines and to

distance education in general? What aspects of the findings of this study might

not be relevant to other distance education programs? What insights does this

study contribute to the existing knowledge about pedagogical competence in

distance education, and what knowledge gaps does this study not address?

REFERENCES

Hoffmann, R., & Dudjak, L.A. (2012). From Onsite to Online: Lessons learned from Faculty Pioneers. Journal of Professional Nursing, 28(4), 255-258.

Lee, D., Paulus, T. M., Loboda, I., Phipps, G., Wyatt, T. H., Myers, C. R., Mixer, S. J. (2010). A faculty development program for nurse educators learning to teach online. Tech Trends, 54(6), 20-28.

Sad, S.N., Goktas, O., & Bayrak, I. (2014). A comparison of student views on Web-based and face-to-face higher education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 15(2), 209-226.

Vioral, A. (2013). Exploring pedagogical competence in a distance education nursing program: A case study. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 3(9), 36-47. DOI: 10.5430/jnep.v3n9p36

THANK YOU!!!