r
r
Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of the West of England, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill,
Bristol BS16 1DD, United Kingd
Accepted 13 November 2008
KEYWORDS
acceptance of this approach.
The study has provided important insights into both the content and delivery of the
improving and developing the packs for future cohorts.
This paper discusses the use of a multimedia deliv- ments for registration they need to provide
 Mental Health and Psychiatry
Whilst the NMC in their circular 36/2006 (NMC,
2006) acknowledge the growing trend towards
0260-6917/$ - see front matter c 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2008.11.017
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 117 32 88477.
E-mail addresses: rod.ward@uwe.ac.uk, Rod@RodSpace.
co.uk (R. Ward).
Nurse Education Today (2009) xxx, xxx–xxx
Nurse
Education
Today
ARTICLE IN PRESSery method of the ‘‘EU requirements’’ in a large
health and social care school of an English Univer-
sity, with over 400 pre-registration adult nursing
students commencing the programme per annum.
evidence of meeting learning outcomes in relation
to the European Directive (77/453/EEC):
 Maternity Care
 Child CareIntroduction In order for adult nursing students to fulfill Nurs-
ing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2004) require-c 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.packs, and the format of the material. The use of IT, with multimedia elements, was
seen as being beneficial by both students and staff. The findings will be useful inEducational technology;
Multimedia;
Nursing education
research;
Program evaluationPlease cite this article in pr
Today (2009), doi:10.1016t
gess as: W
/j.nedt.2om
Summary The use of online multimedia content in nurse education is still in its
infancy with limited research about its role and acceptance by students and staff
within nursing courses.
This paper describes the development of interactive web based delivery for the
European Union directive (77/453/EEC) for maternity, child care and mental health
within adult nursing education. An evaluative study carried out by an online ques-
ionnaire with students, using both structured questions and free text, and a focus
roup with staff whilst identifying areas for further development found generalOnline multimedia delive
directive within adult nu
Rod Ward *, Rachel Salesard, R., Sales, R., Online m
008.11.017y of the European Union
sing education
www.elsevier.com/nedtultimedia delivery of the European Union ..., Nurse Educ.

theoretical approaches to meeting this directive it
continues to be debated in the nursing press (Mall-
aber and Turner, 2006; Zabalegui et al., 2006; Spit-
zer and Perrenoud, 2006a; Spitzer and Perrenoud,
2006b). In 2004 within our Faculty it was proposed
to move from paper resource to support the
achievement of the learning outcomes to an online
delivery and therefore increase the level of inter-
action through the use of multimedia learning re-
sources and student activities. It was felt that an
online approach may be a valuable way for stu-
dents to obtain the information and insights they
require in these areas whilst applying this to prac-
tice through the interactive activities provided
within the online pack.
A range of activities are included within the
learning materials to enhance interaction and stu-
dent learning. The activities range from drag to
drop type activities (Fig. 1) created by faculty staff
using ‘‘Macromedia Flash’’ to videos (Fig. 2) some
of which have been created within the faculty
and others used under license from Film & Sound
Online (http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk/) and
Lifesign (http://www.lifesign.ac.uk/). The issues
surrounding the licensing of externally made vid-
eos, was one of the major challenges within the
development phase of the project. Apart from
the Lifesign videos, which can only be accessed
on campus, all materials can be accessed from
any point at which the students have internet
access.
The completed online pack was introduced with
the September 2006 Adult nursing students and has
subsequently been used with all cohorts within the
first semester of their programme including con-
version students (nurses undertaking a course to
develop their qualifications from enrolled to regis-
tered nurse). Therefore by February 2008 over 800
students were using the online packs and this is ex-
pected to reach over 1000 once the first students
reach the third year of their course.
Evaluation study
In 2006 an evaluation study was proposed which
examined the online delivery of the online packs
for pre-registration adult nursing students, with
stud
ovi
2 R. Ward, R. Sales
ARTICLE IN PRESSFigure 1 Interactive ‘‘drag and drop’’ exercise in which
receive feedback on how many they have right, before mPlease cite this article in press as: Ward, R., Sales, R., Online m
Today (2009), doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2008.11.017ents have to label stages of the menstrual cycle and then
ng on to another screen with another set of labels.ultimedia delivery of the European Union ..., Nurse Educ.