Effectiveness of Digital Learning Objects in Improving Statistics Achievement Among Nursing Students

Abstract

Digital learning objects are a potential resource that can enhance conceptual understanding and students' performance in nursing education. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of learning objects on the achievement of the statistics of the nursing students and to see which factors influenced the achievement of the students after learning objects instruction. Pre test–post test data of 54 nursing students were used for quantitative secondary analysis. This study used descriptive statistics, paired-samples t-tests, correlation analysis, and multivariable regression to examine achievement gains/losses and factors related to education. There was a small increase in Mean statistics achievement from 8.22 to 10.07, which is statistically significant (p = 0.035), and has a small effect size (Cohen's dz = 0.294). The scores on the learning-objects assessments were consistently high and not significantly related with achievement improvement (p = 0.775). Baseline achievement was significantly associated with score change (p < 0.001); however, there were no significant associations between attendance, cumulative academic performance and achievement gains. These results indicate that there is some improvement in the level of achievement in statistics following digital learning-object instruction. With no control group, however, there is little ability to make causal claims. Further controlled investigations are recommended to verify the effectiveness of instruction.