Student Name
Capella University
NURS-FPX 6111 Assessment and Evaluation in Nursing Education
Prof. Name:
Date
Course evaluation is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of educational programs. It offers valuable insights into accomplishing the course’s learning objectives, teaching methodologies, and overall learning experience. Feedback from students is pivotal as they help educators refine their content and adapt to diverse teaching and learning styles, enhancing the quality of education. In this assessment, we developed a course evaluation template for our course titled “Integrative Nursing: Comprehensive Approaches to Patient Care.” The course evaluation template assesses the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning domains to better understand students’ learning experiences. Furthermore, we prepared an executive summary for the supervisor to explain the rationale and importance of the evaluation template.
Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | |
Learning Objectives.I can: | |||||
Demonstrate understanding of integrative nursing principles and practices (Cognitive) | |||||
Apply holistic patient care skills and formulate comprehensive care plans (Cognitive + Psychomotor) | |||||
Examine and integrate evidence-based complementary treatments into patient care (Cognitive + Psychomotor) | |||||
Engage in collaborative interprofessional practice, showing teamwork and effective communication (Affective) | |||||
Analyze and solve complex patient scenarios showcasing critical thinking abilities in integrative nursing (Affective) | |||||
Program Outcomes | |||||
Efficiently apply EBP to deliver effective and safe patient care (Cognitive) | |||||
Exhibit clinical reasoning and critical thinking abilities in patient care scenarios (Cognitive) | |||||
Demonstrate effective interprofessional communication and collaboration to optimize patient outcomes (Affective) | |||||
Foster cultural competence and patient-centered care for diverse populations (Cognitive + Affective) | |||||
Demonstrate leadership qualities and commit to ongoing professional development in the dynamic nursing field (Cognitive + Affective) | |||||
Instructor Approaches | |||||
Presented the content clearly, stating explicit course objectives. | |||||
Prepared course content relevant to my future role in clinical areas. | |||||
Used diverse teaching methodologies to deliver the content. | |||||
Provided precise and constructive feedback after each assessment/evaluation. | |||||
Overall Feedback/ Any Recommendations: |
The assessment strategies incorporated into the end-of-course evaluation template are designed to collect comprehensive student feedback regarding their learning experiences and accomplishments. One of the strategies, the Likert scale, is effective, with options ranging from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.” It provides quantitative data on student perceptions, allowing educators to analyze the degree of consensus or deviation in students’ responses (South et al., 2022). This quantitative data identifies areas of strength and potential improvement in the course’s content and delivery methods to align it with the specified learning objectives and program outcomes.
Additionally, the open-ended comments section encourages qualitative feedback, enabling students to express thorough opinions and suggestions, either uncovered in a close-ended questionnaire or require detailed responses for course refinement (Decorte et al., 2019). This mixed-method approach apprehends quantitative and qualitative data. It also provides rich insights into students’ cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning abilities, fostering a holistic understanding of the course’s effectiveness and student satisfaction within the integrative nursing program
The course evaluation template developed for “Integrative Nursing: Comprehensive Approaches to Patient Care” holistically assesses the effectiveness of the course and students’ learning accomplishments. This course evaluation aligns with the stated learning objectives and program outcomes, ensuring the assessment across cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning domains. Wei et al. (2021) explain that cognitive learning assessments evaluate students’ knowledge acquisition and understanding of concepts. The course evaluation addresses the cognitive domain through learning objectives and program outcomes, such as understanding and application of these skills to patient care, showing clinical reasoning and critical thinking abilities, and fostering cultural competence.
Similarly, learning objectives and program outcomes like applying holistic patient care skills and examining and integrating evidence-based complementary treatments into patient care indicate psychomotor skills, measuring the development of behavioral skills (Wei et al., 2021). Lastly, the evaluation measures the affective learning domain by demonstrating effective interprofessional communication, cultural competence, and patient-centered care. These clinical competencies help educators assess students’ attitudes, principles, and emotions, focusing on developing interpersonal and intrapersonal skills (Wei et al., 2021). The assessment assumes that students are genuine and insightful in their responses, providing accurate feedback. Additionally, it assumes that students can effectively evaluate their understanding, skills development, and attitudes toward patient care, supporting the validity of the assessment.
The course evaluation template utilizes a mixed-methods format, combining quantitative (Likert scale) and qualitative methods (open-ended comment box). These methods comprehensively assess learning and program outcomes. According to South et al. (2022), the Likert scale is justified as an effective format to identify strong and weak areas of the course, enabling educators to make relevant changes according to students’ responses and preferences. On the other hand, Decorte et al. (2019) justify using an open-ended comment section as it permits students to provide detailed feedback, suggestions, and insights regarding their learning experiences, capturing detailed perspectives about strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement.
The criteria for evaluating these formats are comprehensiveness, user-friendliness, flexibility, and validity and reliability (Teasdale et al., 2023). The format covers all relevant learning objectives and program outcomes to ensure a thorough assessment of the entire educational experience (comprehensiveness). Moreover, the format is user-friendly as students can efficiently complete it, encouraging maximum participation and honest feedback. The flexible format allows generalizability to different courses and learning environments across various educational settings. Finally, the evaluation format is devised to produce valid and reliable results. It consistently measures the course’s effectiveness, making it applicable to students across diverse contexts.
The validity and reliability of the evaluation methods can be established through different measures. While the validity of course evaluation is the degree to which the assessment methods measure the intended purpose of the evaluation, the reliability refers to the consistency and stability of the assessment results (Al-Alawi & Alexander, 2020). In the course evaluation form, content validity is crucial to ensure that the evaluative statements align directly with the learning objectives and program outcomes, ensuring that the evaluation accurately reflects cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains.
To enhance reliability, the evaluation format should provide clear instructions, students should consistently interpret the Likert scale, and the open-ended comments section should allow for sufficient qualitative data to validate the quantitative findings. The strengths of our assessment formats include a comprehensive and balanced approach through quantitative and qualitative measures. However, there is a potential for responders’ biases based on socially desirable responses or influenced by external factors. Moreover, students may interpret Likert scale items differently, affecting the consistency of responses. To mitigate these weaknesses, educators may ensure anonymity, reduce biased responses, and provide clear instructions to enhance consistency.
Al-Alawi, R., & Alexander, G. L. (2020). Systematic review of program evaluation in baccalaureate nursing programs. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(4), 236–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2019.12.003
Decorte, T., Malm, A., Sznitman, S. R., Hakkarainen, P., Barratt, M. J., Potter, G. R., Werse, B., Kamphausen, G., Lenton, S., & Asmussen Frank, V. (2019). The challenges and benefits of analyzing feedback comments in surveys: Lessons from a cross-national online survey of small-scale cannabis growers. Methodological Innovations, 12(1), 205979911982560. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059799119825606
South, L., Saffo, D., Vitek, O., Dunne, C., & Borkin, M. A. (2022). Effective use of Likert scales in visualization evaluations: A systematic review. Computer Graphics Forum, 41(3), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/cgf.14521
Teasdale, R. M., Strasser, M., Moore, C., & Graham, K. E. (2023). Evaluative criteria in practice: Findings from an analysis of evaluations published in Evaluation and Program Planning. Evaluation and Program Planning, 97, 102226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2023.10222
Wei, X., Saab, N., & Admiraal, W. (2021). Assessment of cognitive, behavioral, and affective learning outcomes in massive open online courses: A systematic literature review. Computers & Education, 163, 104097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104097
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