While technology is here to stay, many in our profession have a difficult time embracing its benefits, choosing to dwell on snippets of negativity they find disturbing (like the suicide of a student who was cyberbullied). Students were bullied long before social networking sites were invented. Blaming it on Facebook or Twitter and discouraging their use in the classroom keeps us from using tools available to enhance our connection to our students and keep them engaged. Students don't check their Email or answer their phones anymore. However, text them and you get an immediate response. Post a comment or a message on their Facebook page and you will hear from them within 24 hours. There are now seminars about using social networking in the classroom but closed minds won't consider the possibilities. They argue that a quiz or exam online will lack security and lead to cheating. In our field, that is a very serious consideration. But are paper and pencil quizzes and exams really more secure?
Nursing exams are very secure documents. In fact, if a candidate for NCLEX is caught discussing specifics of the licensing exam, it is grounds for denying a license. We try to maintain that same security with our formal exams, though we know students talk. However, quizzes, which are usually given during class time, have never been as secure as our regular exams. I have had students absent for half a quiz but still get 100%. I believe that the online format may be even more secure than giving the quiz in an overcrowded classroom where students are right on top of each other making it very easy to cheat.
I believe the format for this first online quiz made it difficult to cheat, though students who are so inclined will find a way. All questions were randomized, as were all the options. The students had only 15 minutes to complete the exercise--definitely not enough time to look up answers, and were not able to go back to the quiz if they didn't complete the 10 questions. A bigger question for me than how we are giving quizzes is why are we giving quizzes?
Several of us have discussed the rationale of the quizzes we give in our classes. Apparently the first quizzes were given because the students were not doing well in the courses. The quizzes were a way to help their grades. WHAT?? We use the quizzes to inflate their grades? Say it isn't so!
Nursing is unlike many other subjects in that the application of our content to a real patient situation can mean the difference between life and death. Inflating the grades and giving students false confidence in their ability has the potential to affect their NCLEX preparation and success. However, the bigger picture is that "helping" someone pass by inflating a grade might mean harm for a patient because of a future nurse's limited knowledge. As I've said before, "There is no extra credit in nursing!"
Technology is not the enemy. We have to tap into technological advances to reach students who are plugged in to the electronic world. It will require a leap of faith, but our students and our patients deserve nothing less.
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