Look around and you'll notice that people are using desktop computers less and less and mobile devices more and more. Nowadays, we can do anything on a smartphone, from checking e-mail to ordering groceries.
But using mobile devices to access learning activities such as courses, tests, or evaluations is limited. And trying to make the content easy to view, read, and use is a challenge, with the wide variety of device platforms.
Nurse educators, managers and executives must recognize the possibilities of mobile learning and accept the nature of educational transformation.
Some of the trends to look for in mobile video learning include:
Mobile-readiness of content. As more people rely on mobile devices, education developers will format content for easier access, viewing, reading and interaction.
Point-of-learning education. Nurse educators will be able to share information with students at any time, in any location, within minutes.
Nurse expert access. Nurse educators will be able to access the right expert at the right time to share expertise from anywhere around the world.
Nurses as producers. Nurse educators will challenge students to create multimedia projects.
Special connections. Nurse educators will be able to GPS to send nurses content based on location, task, encounter, responsibilities or schedules.
E-books expanded. As nurses benefit from highly personalized, timely information, e-books will evolve from digital versions of print publications to complex resources that blend content, collaboration, testing, and evaluation.
Aggregation of online content and online learning. Innovations will integrate a learner's offline and online experiences, including social, collaborative and experiential learning, with games and real-world activities.
Clark Quinn, Ph.D., a recognized scholar on innovative learning solutions, outlines his "four Cs" of mobile learning:
Content: Invite students and professionals to read and review documents, watch videos, and listen to media in a portable format.
Compute: Create opportunities to process data from student and professional users, deliver answers to queries, and perform calculations.
Capture: Use devices to record sound, video and images, along with other information, for storage and sharing.
Communicate: Connect students with other people, such as fellow students, educators, and experts-via text, audio, and video.
A recent article in the January 2016 issue of CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing discusses the success of applying mobile device use to nursing education. Researchers examined the effects of a mobile-based video clip on learning motivation, competence, and class satisfaction in nursing students using a randomized controlled trial with a pretest and posttest design.
A total of 71 nursing students participated in this study: 36 in the intervention group and 35 in the control group. Researchers created a video clip of how to perform a urinary catheterization, and the intervention group was able to download it to their own mobile devices for unlimited viewing one week. All of the students participated in a practice laboratory to learn urinary catheterization and were blindly tested for their performance skills after participation in the laboratory.
The intervention group showed significantly higher levels of learning motivation and class satisfaction than the control group, who did not have access to the video. Those in the intervention group were shown to be more confident in practicing catheterization than their counterparts.
These findings suggest that mobile devices can be useful tools for nursing education. As technology continues to improve, we will only be seeing more and more learning success stories.
Does your facility employ mobile learning technology at your facility? If so, do you think it is helping with increasing overall clinical competency? Leave us a comment below.