The purpose of this project was to implement an interactive, engaging exam review for an asynchronous, online, direct entry master’s in nursing course in order to increase student engagement, to increase student to student interaction, to allow students an opportunity to check their understanding of content, to allow faculty the opportunity to gauge student learning, and to increase student success. Faculty teaching the challenging Medical Surgical Nursing course recognized the vast amount of content covered in the course, realized students could benefit from a more engaging atmosphere and developed an exam review using the games of Jeopardy and Kahoot! Students read material, completed online discussions and assignments and then were offered the optional game exam review. Students exam scores were tallied, students were surveyed after the exams and students’ course evaluations were reviewed. Findings of the project included that students attending the game review had increased student engagement, increased faculty to student interaction, higher ratings on end of course evaluations regarding improved peer to peer learning, and higher exam scores. Students especially enjoyed the anonymous nature of the game, while being able to check their understanding of content. Students also stated the exam review added an enjoyable element to a difficult topic. Students reported being less anxious on the exams after participating in the online game review. Sattizahn, Moser, & Beilock (2016) report that, how students prepare for exams is an important factor for how well they will recall information during the exam.
Limitations of the project include the possibility that students could have been telling instructors what they thought they wanted to hear about the game exam review. This project was limited to one course in the program, so future research may include expanding the game exam review to more nursing courses. The online game exam review was implemented with experienced online educators. Many nursing faculty admit to either not enjoying online education or being frustrated by it. In order to expand the program, nursing faculty would benefit from education and training on how to implement the online game review. Faculty may resist innovations that are complicated to implement. In order to increase faculty implementation, it is also beneficial to explain the usefulness of educational video games (Sánchez-Mena, Martí-Parreño, & Aldás-Manzano 2017).
In addition to expanding the project within the nursing college, it would be beneficial to expand the project to other colleges of nursing, perhaps as a global project with sister schools of students studying abroad. Currently, international nursing projects are being developed to bring faculty together to study innovations in nursing education (Johnston, Boyle, MacArthur, & Fernandez Manion, 2013). During the age of incredible innovations, faculty shortages and increased nursing enrollment, nursing faculty must continue to find new ways to support one another’s programs, and create engaging, fun, yet rigorous programs to foster student success and create a new generation of amazing nurses.