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.