Evidence-Based Online Teaching Strategies

Sunday, 29 October 2017: 4:35 PM

Margaret Reneau, PhD, RN
School of Nursing, Saint Xavier University, St. Augustine, FL, USA

Learning Objective 1: After the presentation, the learner will be able to: -Know evidence based practices for successful online teaching.

Learning Objective 2: After the presentation, the learner will be able to: -Apply evidence based practices for online teaching, with or without notes, to improve student evaluations.

Increasingly, more nursing education programs have incorporated some type of blended learning and/or online advanced degree programs. Subsequently, many nursing faculty find themselves thrust into the online classroom environment with little preparation or training. A review of the literature and, speaker conducted research, reveals several key concepts to facilitate student learning in the online classroom using evidence based practices.

Evidence based, online teaching, effective practices for nursing faculty include frequent interactions with students. This interaction utilizes the following skills (Paloff & Pratt, 2011):

  • Visibility- can establish presence and is frequently present in online nursing education environment
  • Compassion-expresses sincere positive regard to nursing students and delivers student-focused, student –centered instruction
  • Communication- communicates well with nursing students frequently, provides substantive feedback and communicates well with technology
  • Commitment- sees the value in teaching online and sees the facilitated model of teaching as rigorous and powerful
  • Organization- the excellent online nursing faculty member is organized and a good time manager

Research has also shown that faculty using the above skills is highly correlated to perceived learning in online courses (Cobb, 2011; Claywell, et.al., 2016). This presentation will provide an overview of evidence based, online teaching, and effective practices. The presentation will include with some helpful tips and tools to meet these effective practices for online teaching in nursing education. Student learning, retention and satisfaction are all increased with the use of effective online teaching practices.

Claywell, L., Wallace, C., Price, J., Reneau, M., & Carlson, K. (2016). Influence of nursing faculty discussion presence on student learning and satisfaction in online courses. Nurse Educator, 41(4):175-9. doi:

10.1097/NNE.0000000000000252.

Cobb, S. (2011). Social presence, satisfaction, and perceived learning of RN-to BSN students in web-based nursing courses. Nursing Education Perspectives, 32(2), 115-119.

Palloff,R.M. & Pratt,K. (2011). The Excellent Online Instructor: Strategies for professional development. John Wiley & Sons: San Francisco, CA

See more of: Online Evidence-Based Learning Strategies
See more of: Oral Paper & Poster: Evidence-Based Practice Sessions