An investigation uncovering how students and how tutors design learning objects for novice students to use when acquiring established resuscitation knowledge.

Higher education in the twenty-first century is experiencing transformational change due to the advances in technology, with this period referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution – the Information Age. Just as the three previous revolutions created step changes in society so will this one, and as the changes now are occurring over a much shorter time period academics, educators and universities have less time to understand and respond to these events. The three key technological changes are firstly the availability, power and pervasiveness of computers, secondly the development of the Internet and finally how these factors have affected knowledge and learning, in the new millennium.

These changes in the Information Age have influenced learning theories and learners, with the rapidity meaning there is less time to consider and investigate how technology can be used to enhance student learning in higher education. The opportunities technology provide to improve student learning in higher education range from the design of small educational resources to overarching curricula and educational organisations themselves. This work investigated the design of small educational resources called learning objects and in particular, the storyboard creation aspect of this process and then the educational gains achieved from using said resources. The established knowledge of resuscitation was a suitable vehicle to investigation the design of learning objects as it has a strong internationally accepted theoretical foundation and nurses are required to learn this knowledge as part of their pre-registration education.

The Storyboard Workshop (phase 1) of this research investigated how learning objects are designed by nursing students (n=7) and by tutors (n=6), by applying Tuckman’s stage of group development model revealing how each homogenous group functioned and what twelve pedagogical factors student-designers and tutor-designers felt important when analysed using the Learning Object Attributes Metric (LOAM) Tool. In the Learning and Evaluation (phase 2) of this investigation, novice nursing student were randomly assigned to view either the student-designed (n=58) or tutor-designed (n=61) learning object to acquire established resuscitation knowledge with the learning gain and acceptability of the resource viewed, assessed.
The results of phase 1 revealed student-designers and tutor-designers generally discussed similar LOAM pedagogical factors though students spent more time discussing navigation and tutors focussed on the objective. When Tuckman’s model was applied the student-designers spent significantly less time forming and storming and significantly more time performing than the tutor-designers, suggesting when designing learning objects on established knowledge, students focus on the task whereas tutors may refer to professional experience that may distract from the design process.

Phase two demonstrated irrespective of the designers, viewing either the student-designed or tutor-designed learning object conferred significant learning gains when pre and post viewing (knowledge, student-designed 4.3 to 8.3, p=.000; tutor-designed 4.4 to 8.2, p=.000 and confidence in knowledge, student-designed 5.4 to 7.5, p=.000; tutor-designed 5.3 to 6.9, p=.000) was assessed. However, the difference in confidence in knowledge significantly favoured the student-designed resource (2.1 v 1.5, p=.042), though both resources were very positively evaluated.

In the design of a learning object it may be the student-designers are more attuned to their peers needs, and this effect could be exploited by ensuring students are integral in the design of a learning object for novice student to use when acquiring established knowledge. In addition, this effect may be applicable with projects to design learning objects for novice learners to acquire established knowledge, whether this has a clinical focus or for novice students in non-healthcare disciplines.

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