Formative e-Assessment for Moroccan Polyvalent Nurses Training: Effects and Challenges

Abstract

Formative e-assessment is an innovative teaching practice to enhance learning. However, teachers encounter multiple difficulties in integrating it. In this article,we present the results of an exploratory study conducted with nurses teachers (n=10) to identify the challenges that prevent the integration of technology in formative assessment. Moreover,we expose the results of a learning experience in order to measure the effect of formative e-assessment on teaching the course of surgical nursing care. 
 Our population includes fifty-eight (n= 58) polyvalent student nurses, divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. Only the experimental group has been invited to respond to self-assessment quizzes posted online after the course sessions. 
 The positive effect on learning was demonstrated, after comparing the summative scores of the two groups (the p-value of the Mann-Whitney Test is less than 0.05). Also, the qualitative study has demonstrated challenges in ICT integration, absence of institutional directives recommending the use of ICT, required technical skills, diversity of tasks required of teachers, lack of material resources and absence of an institutional platform. The obtained results conclude that the formative evaluation facilitated by ICT positively influences the students’ summative scores. This conclusion should encourage 
 and motivate teachers to integrate ICT into their formative evaluation practices in order to better achieve the learning objectives. However, it seems necessary to involve the actors responsible for training nurses in order to support teachers in the pedagogical integration of ICT.

Digital Assessment in Technology-Enriched Education: Thematic Review

“…An important aspect of e-assessment is operating conditions. The most important indicated are training and resources [52] and learnability, availability and constant practice and use [51,53]. Resistance to change (which can also be included in challenges) is mentioned as a negative personal obstacle that may affect the use of e-assessment [52].…”

“…The most important indicated are training and resources [52] and learnability, availability and constant practice and use [51,53]. Resistance to change (which can also be included in challenges) is mentioned as a negative personal obstacle that may affect the use of e-assessment [52]. It is therefore necessary to determine how to eliminate this disruptive factor in order to implement e-assessment.…”

“…As a result, there are several benefits for learning [54,56,58,66,69]. Feedback is also one of the benefits of e-assessment, as it has the effect of increasing and detailing knowledge, and technology makes it immediate [49,52,54,62,68]. An important aspect is also the possibility of increasing objectivity, consistency and fairness, as well as academic integrity [53,56,62,66,70], because technologies can provide tools for standardization, automatization, authentication and authorization.…”

“…When preparing the assignments and examinations, the pedagogical aim of educators is to avoid a strong reliance on memorization, instead testing conceptual understanding. Assessing complex, open-ended work is a serious challenge [52][53][54]65,66,70,75]. The next important aspect is the fairness and reliability of the assessment, which is related to unwanted activities such as impersonation, contract cheating and plagiarism; the possibility of the 'hidden' usage of additional materials; and privacy and data security [54,56,59,60,71,73].…”

Design of an eOSCE for the Chilean Healthcare Context

“…Electronic OSCEs (eOSCEs) can emulate the traditional exam through digital mediums that are particularly attractive for young students, such as mobile applications [16]. The use of eOSCEs lowers implementation costs, accelerates feedback delivery [17], and enables students to train with more frequency and ease [18].…”