The Use of Collaborative Testing (CT) Among Graduating Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Background:Active learning is an educational strategy, in which students are responsible for their learning needs, and are more engaged in educational process. Collaborative testing, also known as group testing, is an active learning strategy, in which students learn and practice in collaboration.2 It is broadly defined as a “method of collaborative learning in which students work together on a test”. Collaborating testing has been utilized by higher education for decades but its use in nursing is recent. Nursing schools are using various teaching pedagogies, and test-taking strategies to ensure that students pass the standardized National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN^®), including the use of ATI Predictor Assessments Inventory^©. Students’ passing the NCLEX-RN^® for the first time translates to their nursing program success

Purposes: (1) To determine whether the mean Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI)^© individual test score is different between students taught using CT versus those using traditional pedagogy (control); (2) To examine what was the difference in scores before and after CT; and (3) To evaluation student satisfaction of CT among students exposed to CT

Method: A quasi-experimental, comparative, non-equivalent approach was used in this project. Students enrolled in the last nursing essential course were participants in the project. CT was used as the educational pedagogy with intervention group (CT group) whereas the control cohort was taught in the traditional teaching strategy

Results: The CT group showed significant change in the scores before and after CT. There was no difference in the ATI predictor assessments scores between two groups. Sixty-one percent of the students from the CT group considered the usefulness of CT high or exceptional. Over 85% of the students reported CT increased their critical thinking and improved social skills.

Conclusion: CT improved student's short-term scores but not ATI predictor assessments' scores. CT also helped improve clinical reasoning, clarifying confusing questions, and working together in the CT group.