Today’s learner is one that expects active learning activities that have a meaningful purpose and contribute to their educational goals. The previous educational experience for many of today’s learners focused on small group work with active teambuilding activities (Duane & Satre, 2014). Active learning is a strategy that is student-centered and student driven with faculty facilitation. Active learning strategies are shown to increase the learner’s comprehension and retention of complex concepts (Rivaz, Momennasab & Shokrollati, 2015; Duane & Satre, 2014; Eastridge, 2014).
The nursing profession requires a high degree of collaboration between nurses and amongst other healthcare discipline members (Duan & Satre, 2014). Active learning strategies within a nursing curriculum are an essential strategy to promote the nursing student’s future ability to successfully assimilate into the profession, to develop critical thinking skills, and to learn effective communication skills with the healthcare team. Collaborative testing is an active learning strategy supported in the literature with promoting learning, critical thinking skills, and conflict resolution skills (Cortright, Collins, Rodenbauh, & DiCarlo, 2013; Centrella-Nigro, 2012).
Collaborative testing is an active learning strategy which requires the student to actively share perspectives and negotiate towards a shared decision. Collaborative testing is defined as a small group of students who work together in completing a course test (Eastridge, 2014). Students who participate in collaborative testing have reported increased confidence with group decision making (Rivaz et al, 2015; Eastridge, 2014; Duane & Satre, 2014; Parsons & Teel, 2013). Student course satisfaction was also found to be significantly increased when collaborative testing is used as a learning strategy (Centralla-Nigro, 2012).
Body
One concern expressed by nursing faculty is collaborative testing resulting in grade inflation which may negatively impact outcomes for a nursing program (Duane & Satre, 2014). While the literature review supports the value collaborative testing offers to learning, the impact on student program retention in a nursing educational program and nursing program outcomes for pass rate on the National Counsel Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) is limited. The purpose of this retrospective study is to identify the impact collaborative testing has on retaining a nursing student in an educational program. A secondary aim is to determine if those nursing students retained due to collaborative testing points are successful on the NCLEX-RN on the first attempt. The following research questions guided this two-year retrospective study:
1. Do students who pass an individual nursing course due to collaborative testing points have the same or similar graduation rate as nursing students who passed an individual nursing course without collaborative testing points?
2. Do students who pass an individual nursing course due to collaborative testing points have the same or similar first time NCLEX- RN pass rate as nursing students who passed all courses without collaborative testing points?
This retrospective study reviewed final course grades books that offered collaborative testing for the calendar years of 2010 and 2011. The graduation status and NCLEX-RN data is known for all nursing students during the study frame with a total of 266 nursing student educational records reviewed. During the retrospective analysis, 16 nursing students passed a nursing course due to the addition of collaborative testing points to their individual test grades. The impact of collaborative testing resulted in one nursing student passing two nursing courses due to the addition of collaborative testing points. A total of 14 nursing students of the 16 nursing students who passed a nursing course due to collaborative testing successfully graduated from the nursing program.
The nursing program on-time graduation rate is determined if the nursing student admitted to the nursing program completes the program within 3 years (150% time frame). The overall nursing program on-time graduation rate for 2010 and 2011 was 81% and 85% respectively. Nursing students who were retained due to collaborative testing have a similar on-time graduation rate of 81% with 13 of the 16 students graduating within the 150% time frame. One nursing student retained due to collaborative testing did graduate from the nursing program but exceeded the 150% timeframe.
The overall NCLEX-RN first time pass rate for the nursing program for 2010 and 2011 was 97% for both years. The first time NCLEX-RN pass rate for the 14 nursing students who were retained in the nursing program due to collaborative testing is 93% with 13 nursing students passing the NCLEX-RN exam on the first attempt. The nursing student who was not successful on the first attempt delayed taking the NCLEX-RN exam more than six months from the time of graduation. The delay in taking the NCLEX-RN exam for the first time is a confounding factor to consider for the nursing student who was not successful.
Conclusion
While this study found that 16 nursing students passed a course due to the points received from collaborative testing, the terminal nursing program outcomes for graduation rate and first time NCLEX-RN pass rates for those retained due to collaborative testing points are comparable to the overall nursing program outcomes. Thus, the collaborative testing points did not adversely impact nursing program outcomes for graduation rate and NCLEX-RN pass rates. Additionally, the study findings support that nursing students were able to make better collaborative team decisions versus independent decisions based upon the mean tests scores for the collaborative tests were statistically increased with all 76 tests reviewed in comparison to the individual test mean scores.
Collaborative testing can be applied differently within a nursing curriculum. Nursing faculty should consider how to apply collaborative testing as a learning strategy that nursing students and nursing faculty find meaningful and purposeful. Ongoing data collection regarding the impact collaborative testing has on nursing student outcomes should continue as a part of the nursing program regular review for curriculum currency and curriculum rigor. Overall, this study found collaborative testing to be an effective learning strategy to promote nursing student learning needs and nursing program outcomes.