Development and Evaluation of a Blended Learning Curriculum for Nurse Practitioners

Blended learning curriculums are proliferating across universities in the United States as evidence increases that student learning gains and engagement are enhanced; students are more satisfied with their learning experiences; and this approach allows for greater flexibility for both faculty and students (Kaleta, Skibba & Joosten, 2007). The preponderance of evidence in support of blended learning has focused on undergraduate students rather than within graduate education (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). While a variety of blended learning courses have been described in the literature for the graduate-level, there is little scholarly research that describes the learning outcomes of this pedagogical approach within a graduate nursing curriculum. Moreover, there is a lack of information that addresses student attitudes and satisfaction with a blended learning curriculum. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is twofold; to provide specific recommendations in the development & evaluation of blended learning curriculums in NP programs, and secondly to describe the results of a programmatic student evaluation of learning gains, attitude and satisfaction with their clinical learning in a nurse practitioner program. This study used a mixed methods approach that included the completion of an online quantitative survey and one qualitative individual interview. All DNP students in the program were eligible to participate. The Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG) was used to measure student’s perceptions of their learning gains associated with the DNP curriculum. Qualitative questions were designed to expand the degree of information provided by the SALG instrument on student learning gains, attitudes and overall satisfaction.