Integrating Nursing Classrooms with Technology via Audience Response Systems: A Pilot Study

An audience response system (ARS) was used to integrate a nursing classroom with technology. ARS can both engage students and provide immediate feedback. Students (n=60) enrolled in an introductory professional nursing course at a Southeastern U.S. university evaluated ARS use for testing. Literature on ARS use in nursing education is limited, thus the need to determine nursing students’ perceptions of the appropriateness of ARS for evaluation. Facilitation of testing and instruction are a few benefits of using ARS. A 4-point Likert perception scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) was distributed to students after all coursework for the semester was completed. Survey questions were projected on the screen and students clicked in their responses. On the perception scale, for Agree or Strongly Agree, 56 (94.9%) indicated they liked using the CPS for quizzes, 49 (85.9%) preferred CPS to written mid-term exams, 51 (87.9%) perceived it was a fair method of grading quizzes, 50 (96.2%) indicated a desire for greater use, and 51 (94.4%) recommend use of CPS to others. Younger, female students preferred (p<.05) use of CPS for quizzes, wished it were used by faculty in other courses and recommend use of CPS to other students. Younger students also preferred (p<.05) using CPS for quizzes rather than having a written midterm exam. Students who reported fewer years since high school completion preferred the use of CPS for written final exams. Overall entry error rate was .013 for six quizzes throughout the semester.