Millennial's Perspective of Clickers as an Active Strategy in Nursing Education

Purpose: Despite the need for educators to teach using different methods to motivate students, nurse educators find this challenging. Experiential learning that encompasses technology and evidence based educational strategies can lend to a more interactive classroom environment that draws the Millennial student’s attention. This mixed-method study investigated the student perceptions of clicker technology as an active strategy in one school of nursing over one semester period.

Introduction: Studies reveal that millennial students play a major role in the changing classroom dynamics. While nursing faculty often favor traditional methods of teaching, recognizing and providing innovative strategies that are active help to address generational diversity to maximize student outcomes, retention, and progression. Clicker technology involves the process of active learning through peer discussion and clarification of classroom material from the instructor without any fear of consequences.

Methodology: A mixed-method study following two cohorts of nursing students over a one semester period to measure their perspective of the use of clickers as an active strategy. This study used a 9-item questionnaire to explore perceived levels of student perception of the technology of clickers in a nursing classroom. Data was collected from two cohorts of nursing students in the sophomore and senior level of the nursing program. The numerical data was analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis and the narrative comments was analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: According to Dale (1969) “people learn 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what is demonstrated, but 90% when what is said and done is combined” (Boctor, 2013, p. 97). Millennial students bring new diversity and learning preferences to the collegial realm. Their personal learning styles different from traditional teacher pedagogy. Trialing multiple approaches while examining student perception of the learning activities can aid the educator to enhance the classroom environment. Students felt that the use of clickers helped them to develop a better understanding of the subject matter, became more involved in class, and were beneficial to individual learning.

Conclusions/Recommendations: The research examined teaching techniques which will help nurse educators maintain student’s motivation and desire to learn The study’s findings will be available report positive student perceptions of the use of clicker technology to evaluate learning and understanding of concepts in an anonymous way.