Online learning might not be a new idea, but it has quickly become one of the most important innovations in education in recent history. Today’s students can study from nearly any location where there is a solid internet connection and interact directly with students and instructors across the globe. Even fields that have traditionally relied firmly on in-person education are adopting online learning initiatives to make finding and training new professionals as easy and efficient as possible. Aspiring nurses, for example, are finding it increasingly easy to secure comprehensive education remotely, allowing them to continue their day-to-day lives while studying.
Of course, not all online programs are created equal. Interactive modules and clinical placement support are two of the most important components of effective online learning for aspiring nurses. This article will explore the benefits of online learning that offers both.
What are interactive modules?
When thinking about online learning programs, people who are unfamiliar with the remote learning process might picture live lectures or video-recorded lessons, both of which require students to sit quietly while their instructor talks. While many programs do typically have that kind of component, the most effective parts of remote learning take place away from droning monologues.
Interactive modules are educational tools that provide learners with the opportunity to directly engage with the content they are learning. Instead of quietly reading a chapter from a textbook or idly listening to an instructor speak, interactive modules require students to take an active part in their education. This is done by implementing multimedia and interactive elements into students’ daily study sessions.
Are interactive modules important to learning?
High levels of engagement have been repeatedly found to predict learning and performance outcomes. In a recent Gallup meta-analysis centering on the way that engagement influences employee behavior and outcomes, it was shown that high engagement reliably leads to more positive outcomes than more traditional working environments. More specifically, Gallup found that engagement helped employees excel in the following ways:
- Higher productivity
- Higher work quality
- Lower absenteeism
- Higher job satisfaction
These findings reflected data already collected by Gallup in 2018 on the importance of engagement to students in grades five to 12. According to an analysis of the data, engaged students are more than two times more likely to be confident in their school performance and more than four times more likely to be excited about their futures than disengaged peers. Furthermore, the study found that engagement is directly tied to academic success.
Interactive modules can typically be accessed from a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets and full-size computers. This makes it possible for students to remain engaged with their studies regardless of where they are or what they’re doing. Easy access also means that students can pick up their studying in their spare time, rather than waiting until they are at home at their full-size computers for an extended period. Some students work full-time and study on their breaks.
What are clinical placements?
Now that we know why interactive modules are important to student engagement and success, let’s look at clinical placements. In nursing, clinical placements are crucial to students’ successful transition from studying to working one-on-one with patients.
Clinical placements allow students to put the theoretical knowledge they learn in the classroom to practical use, reinforcing their studies and improving their professional skills. However, not all nursing students will be given a clinical placement, with many available positions reserved for graduate students. For example, if you are working toward an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN), you most likely won’t take part in a comprehensive clinical placement. On the other hand, nurse practitioner (NP) students most likely will. ADN to NP programs online grants their students clinical placements so they can engage with advanced care methods immediately. This is the case with respected educational institutions such as Wilkes University, which offers an RN to MSN program designed to take aspiring NPs to the next level.
Students might find that they need some support once they begin their clinical placement. This is completely normal! After all, it is very different from a classroom or a lecture in the comfort of your own home. The good news is that the best universities will connect their students with a placement team as they move through their degree programs. Placement teams collaborate directly with students to place them in clinical facilities that are relevant to their career goals and interests.
Once clinical placements have begun, students can utilize their online learning platform to access clinical placement support. Placement teams help students adjust to their placement of choice and thrive in the fast-paced environment that NPs work within. This is important because even the best and most promising of students can end up momentarily discouraged when they first begin working with patients face to face, but this doesn’t mean that they won’t make incredible care providers. Placement teams provide students with the support they need to do well and feel confident in their nursing abilities.
Benefits of interactive modules and clinical placement support
Now that we know the basics about the clinical placement and student engagement processes, let’s take a closer look at how online learning can enhance engagement and provide valuable hands-on experience for students. Let’s look at everything that comprehensive online learning programs have to offer.
Flexibility
Online learning with interactive modules allows students to maintain their day jobs and daily responsibilities while studying for their future careers. A few decades ago, it was nearly impossible to complete a nursing degree remotely. Nursing is an infamously hands-on profession and students were expected to report in person to learn important caregiving skills. This presented certain barriers to entry that made studying nursing a potentially difficult process.
First, students were required to attend schools on campus. Not all schools offer nursing degrees, which meant that sometimes students needed to move quite far away from their homes to find the right program for their goals. While the prospect of starting over in a new location can be intimidating all on its own, some students simply couldn’t afford to move. This meant that they had to rethink their future career and sometimes enter different academic fields.
Another issue with in-person-only degrees is the disruption they cause in students’ lives. It was challenging for someone working full-time to also attend school full-time, with course offerings varying by semester and sometimes very little in the way of schedule flexibility. The same is true of students who had other responsibilities in life, such as raising children or serving as a caregiver for a loved one. These students often had difficulty adapting their out-of-school schedules to accommodate their studies, which sometimes led to them rethinking their degrees entirely.
Since online learning and the interactive modules that enforce students’ knowledge are often available on many different devices, students can fit their studying into their everyday lives rather than attempt to change their everyday lives to earn a degree. As they can study in a way that works for their schedules and responsibilities, online students are not only more engaged than traditional students, but can also maintain their lifestyle while learning. Fewer students need to relocate for their degrees, which removes potential socio-economic barriers that have the potential to restrict who can feasibly earn a degree and work as a nurse in the US.
Personalization
In addition to making, it easier for a wide range of students to study, online nursing degrees also cater to different learning styles. Not all students learn well from lectures alone. The need to create programs that seek to educate students with all manner of strengths and weaknesses has been increasingly important over the past few decades, both online and offline. Today’s highly interactive online learning degrees are making it easier for students to excel regardless of what learning style they adopt.
As well as offering student’s supplemental materials such as videos and quizzes that they can use to reinforce their learning, online learning can also track how students spend their time and their academic outcomes and suggest different coursework and interactive modules that suit their study style. Students who are more engaged with multimedia such as videos or PowerPoint, for example, might be recommended additional material that seeks to draw students in without relying heavily on the use of monologues and traditional lectures. This doesn’t mean that students won’t also have to contend with traditional academic conventions, but it does make it much easier for students of all kinds to grasp the material.
Tailored learning experiences can be incredibly helpful and lead to not only increased engagement but also an enhanced understanding of the topics and concepts in question. They also allow students to improve their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
Retention and active participation
Another benefit of online learning with interactive modules and an engaging design is retention and active participation. Involving students in hands-on activities does more than just keep them interested in the course material – it also promotes active learning, which is tied to increased academic performance and a better likelihood of completing the degree or course in question.
Active learning is a teaching style that involves students in multiple different ways:
- Thinking
- Talking
- Writing
- Problem-solving
When students become intimately familiar with the subject matter by using and thinking about it in a wide variety of ways, they gain a deeper understanding of the material. They also build personal connections with it, which naturally increases their motivation to keep studying and complete their knowledge.
More effective clinical placements
Finally, online learning with interactive modules and access to clinical placement support leads to more effective clinical placements in general. Students need to do more than just show up for their clinical placement and go through the motions. To fully master the skills necessary to be an excellent nurse, they must feel confident in the work they complete.
While clinical placements are incredibly enriching and crucial to a graduate student’s studies, it is normal to have an adjustment period as the difference between online learning and in-person work is quite pronounced. Online clinical placement support makes it easy for students to reach out for a helping hand along with some encouragement when they need it the most. This, in turn, makes them more likely to become frustrated with the work and potentially pull out of the degree program early.
Beyond students, online clinical placement support also helps patients. Students who are more engaged in the learning process and feel confident in the help they are providing often develop a better understanding of different care procedures and techniques.
Conclusion
Nurses are an incredibly important part of the healthcare system in the US. Recruiting and retaining as many nursing students as possible is increasingly important, especially as nursing education becomes more approachable for students from all walks of life. Online learning is revolutionizing the way that students learn and is poised to transform how we recruit, train, and retain nursing students via interactive modules and advanced clinical placement support.