title: Expanding nursing education through e-learning: A case study in Malaysia.
abstract: The School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (SHS) is planning to expand its contribution to produce more graduate nurses by offering a nursing degree through e-learning. After three years of using e-learning by four lecturers in seven nursing courses, we conducted a study to get the lecturers feedback and to compare the students' preference and their actual experiences in e-learning. Lecturers' feedback were collected based on six open-ended questions. Feedback from all the 36 final year nursing students were collected using Constructivist On-line Learning Environment Survey (COLLES)--the Student Experience/Preferred Form. Results show that lecturers and students have positive perception on e-learning. They perceive e-learning as a powerful and effective tool for expanding nursing education to meet the demand for a labour force that is knowledgeable, highly skilled and equipped with positive values. We believe blended learning is the most suitable approach to implement e-learning and social constructivism theory provides the dynamic view of learning. To increase success in e-learning implementation for the nursing programme, lecturers should be educated regarding proper instructional design so that their content delivery blends well with the technology and pedagogy.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. sharifah@kck.usm
authors.forename: Sharifah-Mastura
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Syed-Mohamad
authors.forename: Kasmah-Wati
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Pardi
authors.forename: Nor-Azmi
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Zainal
authors.forename: Zalina
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ismail
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D020375:Education, Distance; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008296:Malaysia; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires