Factors Affecting Student Success in Oregon Associate Degree Nursing Programs

Background: Multiple factors contribute to student retention and attrition rates in undergraduate nursing programs. Attrition rates are rising, which affects society as the population is aging and there is a need for more nurses. Identifying attrition risk as a method to increase student success is imperative in order to produce more nurses. The purpose of this project was to analyze and evaluate predictive factors and academic issues that affect student success at Oregon Consortium of Nursing Education (OCNE) schools in order decrease attrition rates in the science courses and increase associate degree of nursing (ADN) program completion. Methods: This records-based correlational study included a random sampling selection of students from nine OCNE community college associate degree nursing programs in Oregon (n = 500). Deidentified transcripts were collected from students who were enrolled full-time in the nursing programs. The data included students’ grade point average (GPA), grades, and completion rates. Prerequisite GPA scores, anatomy and physiology (A&P) course scores, chemistry course scores, microbiology course scores, and prerequisite repeats, and ADN sciences (pathophysiology and pharmacology) course scores were obtained from each participating school via electronic records. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 24 software with predictive analytics. Results: Of 488 (n = 500) successful completions from OCNE ADN programs, there was a positive statistically significant correlation between prerequisite biological science GPA and ADN GPA (r = .128, n = 488, p = .005). The correlation between prerequisite science GPA and program completion showed a statistically significant negative, albeit weak, correlation (r = -.128, n = 500, p = .004). Analyses reveals a statistically significant positive correlation between A&P and chemistry course repeats and successful completion of ADN sciences. Recommendations: OCNE admission standards must undergo ongoing and repeated evaluation to improve high academic standards. Current recommendations include revision of admissions point system and number of course repeats, investigation of A&P teaching methodology and content, and further studies to investigate direct cause and effect of student attrition beyond predictive correlational relationships. Conclusions: The results of this study were congruent with evidence-based literature. There are four statistically significant and potentially predictive correlations, including: 1) The grade a student receives in a prerequisite science course correlates with the grade they will receive in an ADN science course; 2) Prerequisite science GPA correlates with the GPA a student receives upon completion of the ADN program; 3) Prerequisite science GPA correlates with the likelihood of completing the ADN program; and, 4) Repeating either A&P or chemistry correlates with a higher likelihood of completing the ADN program. In order to decrease attrition, higher standards need to be placed on the prerequisite science courses to ensure that students with high academic qualifications are admitted to nursing programs

Distributed Learning and Isolated Testing:Tensions in Traditional Assessment Practices

Traditional assessment in higher education often measures performance in controlled conditions, isolating students from the people and many of the resources they have interacted with in the process of learning. While a desire to maximise reliability and standardise the measurement of ability is understandable, there is a danger that such practices privilege internal, individual and abstract forms of knowledge at the expense of contextualised, collective and adaptive practices. Most university graduates will need to be effective networked learners, using social and material resources to adapt to changing and complex workplace settings and, increasingly, digital networks. If we accept that assessment is an important driver of learning, then it follows that assessments in which students are able to make use of available resources and networks, may afford a more appropriate preparation for future employment, particularly in light of an increasing need to adapt to technological change.In this paper, we draw on ideas from distributed cognition, in which processes of thinking are shared across people, tools and objects, to question traditional assessment practices. To ground our discussion, we present findings from a thematic analysis of blog posts of MSc Clinical Education students (made up of clinical educators from a variety of nationalities and disciplines) about the process of learning a novel motor skill. While these students tended to consider mastery of the skill to involve the ability to perform it without the help of people or supporting resources (instructions, images, video demonstrations, etc.), our analysis shows that there was often no clear boundary between supported and unsupported performance and that a requirement to reduce dependency on supportive networks and materials could be a barrier to development. Further, the acknowledgement by many students that learning and performance are contextual leads us to the conclusion that, while reducing reliance on resources may help to stabilise some forms of knowledge, it may also reduce opportunities to develop effective practices and the adaptive capacity to integrate into complex social and technological environments. In conclusion, we call for the development of assessments in which students are not only allowed but encouraged to make effective use of networks, technologies, environments and artefacts in ways that test both understanding and the ability to operate as components of distributed systems

Reliability and validity of the UK Biobank cognitive tests

UK Biobank is a health resource with data from over 500,000 adults. The cognitive assessment in UK Biobank is brief and bespoke, and is administered without supervision on a touchscreen computer. Psychometric information on the UK Biobank cognitive tests are limited. Despite the non-standard nature of these tests and the limited psychometric information, the UK Biobank cognitive data have been used in numerous scientific publications. The present study examined the validity and short-term test-retest reliability of the UK Biobank cognitive tests. A sample of 160 participants (mean age = 62.59, SD = 10.24) was recruited who completed the UK Biobank cognitive assessment and a range of well-validated cognitive tests ('reference tests'). Fifty-two participants returned 4 weeks later to repeat the UK Biobank tests. Correlations were calculated between UK Biobank tests and reference tests. Two measures of general cognitive ability were created by entering scores on the UK Biobank cognitive tests, and scores on the reference tests, respectively, into separate principal component analyses and saving scores on the first principal component. Four-week test-retest correlations were calculated for UK Biobank tests. UK Biobank cognitive tests showed a range of correlations with their respective reference tests, i.e. those tests that are thought to assess the same underlying cognitive ability (mean Pearson r = 0.53, range = 0.22 to 0.83, p≤.005). The measure of general cognitive ability based on the UK Biobank cognitive tests correlated at r = 0.83 (p < .001) with a measure of general cognitive ability created using the reference tests. Four-week test-retest reliability of the UK Biobank tests were moderate-to-high (mean Pearson r = 0.55, range = 0.40 to 0.89, p≤.003). Despite the brief, non-standard nature of the UK Biobank cognitive tests, some tests showed substantial concurrent validity and test-retest reliability. These psychometric results provide currently-lacking information on the validity of the UK Biobank cognitive tests

Institutional contexts in supporting quality online postgraduate education:Lessons learned from two initiatives at the University of Edinburgh

While there are a range of practices and principles that underpin quality online postgraduate education, this work cannot all be done through course design and teaching. Good educational practice is also embedded in institutional policies, strategies, cultures and infrastructures. In this chapter, we examine two very different initiatives at the University of Edinburgh—the Distance Education Initiative (DEI) and the Near Future Teaching project (NFT)—to discuss the challenges of generating coherent institutional change towards supporting quality online postgraduate taught (PGT) education. In doing so, we highlight the importance of meaningful negotiation of central and local aims and values, through faculty development, communication between educational and leadership networks, and the embedding of educational practitioners within leadership constellations