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Kiteley, Robin J. and Ormrod, Graham
Towards a team-based, collaborative approach to embedding e-learning within undergraduate
nursing programmes
Original Citation
Kiteley, Robin J. and Ormrod, Graham (2009) Towards a team-based, collaborative approach to
embedding e-learning within undergraduate nursing programmes. Nurse Education Today, 29 (6).
pp. 623-629. ISSN 0260-6917
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,Towards a team-based, collaborative approach to embedding
e-learning within undergraduate nursing programmes
Robin J Kiteley, Graham Ormrod
Keywords: e-learning, embedding, student-centred learning, information
technology, team-based collaboration
Summary
E-learning approaches are incorporated in many undergraduate nursing programmes
but there is evidence to suggest that these are often piecemeal and have little
impact on the wider, nurse education curriculum. This is consistent with a broader
view of e-learning within the higher education (HE) sector, which suggests that
higher education institutions (HEIs) are struggling to make e-learning a part of their
mainstream delivery (HEFCE, 2005). This article discusses some of the challenges that
face contemporary nurse education and seeks to account for reasons as to why e-
learning may not be fully embedded within the undergraduate curriculum. These
issues are considered within a wider debate about the need to align e-learning
approaches with a shift towards a more student focused learning and teaching
paradigm. The article goes on to consider broader issues in the literature on the
adoption, embedding and diffusion of innovations, particularly in relation to the
value of collaboration. A collaborative, team-based approach to e-learning
development is considered as a way of facilitating sustainable, responsive and
multidisciplinary developments within a field which is constantly changing and
evolving.
Introduction
In its 2005 HEFCE st ateg fo e-lea i g do u e t the Higher Education Funding
Council for England (HEFCE) expressed a commitment to work with its partners to
"embed e-learning in higher education in a full and sustainable way within the next
ten years" (HEFCE, 2005:3). This article examines the literature on e-learning within
nurse education and considers potential discipline related factors which may have
influenced rates of adoption. It also discusses the wider implications of this in
elatio to de elopi g u si g stude ts i fo atio a d o u i atio te h olog
(ICT) and information literacy skills. This is a particularly pressing concern not only in
ega ds to de elopi g u si g stude ts i depe de t lea i g skills ut e uall fo
preparing them for professional practice ( DoH, 2008; Willmer, 2005).
Rationale
The rationale for undertaking this exploration is grounded within our joint
experience of developing and facilitating e-learning within undergraduate nursing
programmes. In our roles as divisional head of adult nursing and learning
technologist, respectively, we have engaged in a u e of e-lea i g p oje ts , and
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, have explored aspects of collaboration which bridge pedagogic and technical skill
bases. Evaluation of these projects suggested that nursing students responded
positively to these learning methods, which follows the general trend reported
elsewhere in the literature (Atack, 2003; Farrell et al., 2007; Green at al., 2006;
Mitchell et al., 2007). However, it is significant that the resources that were created
for these projects were often soon discarded or neglected after key development
staff had moved on to other projects or roles. This is noted as a barrier to embedding
and sustaining e-learning developments in the wider literature (McPherson and
Nunes, 2008).
Limitations of project-based approaches
Clearly a p oject- ased st le of e-learning implementation has not facilitated the
kind of broader embedding, adoption and normalising that HEFCE refer to (Timmis,
2003:2). It ignores both the p ofou d o ple it of su h adoptio as a process
(Greenhalgh et al., 2004) and more particularly the vital organisational and
institutional aspects of e-learning implementation (McPherson and Whitworth,
2008; Welsh et al., 2003). Moreover this approach, which relies heavily on pockets of
enthusiasts and early-adopters, can result in a confusing lack of consistency in terms
of stude ts holisti , educational experience. For instance, they may experience
learning and teaching methods which are heavily supported by learning technologies
in one subject area, but find that they are used in cursory ways in others. This may
lead students and educators to question the validity of e-learning or blended
learning approaches, and encourage the perception that ICT skills are peripheral to
the practice of nursing.
Sustaining and embedding outputs, or organisational learning, which result from
short-term projects, also appears to have been largely overlooked. This is in part a
hangover from the early days of e-learning development when discrete projects
were pump-primed from specific sources of funding such as the Teaching Quality
Enhancement Fund (TQEF) (White, 2007). One of the key oversights with this kind of
model, from a process perspective, is that there is often an in-built assumption that
e-learning materials or interventions do not require ongoing revision and
maintenance. Inevitably, if project members with specialist technical skills are
redeployed at the conclusion of project lifecycles then academics are often left with
resources that they may not know how to maintain, edit, update or re-develop.
Furthermore, Adams (2004) emphasises the fact that the pedagogic design of e-
learning materials carries inherent notions about knowledge and learning, which
may not be easily transferable to other contexts (i.e. use by other educators).
Sig ifi a tl , G ee halgh et al. ide tif ei e tio the a ilit fo adopters
to modify or customise an innovation) as being a key determinant in relation to
perceived ease of innovation adoption.
Despite intentions being expressed in policy and strategy, at both national and local
levels, there is still a significant distance between aspiration and reality in terms of e-
learning implementation and embedding. This is problematic for those involved in
the delivery of nurse education given that the contemporary healthcare agenda
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