Teaching Information Literacy in Nursing Using Blended Learning Pedagogy

Abstract

Information literacy is a crucial skill for nurses to retrieve, judge, and provide appropriate information to patients and their caregivers. This study aimed to develop a blended course to cultivate nursing students’ informatics competency. This was a three-semester study including a development of the course, pilot-test and modification of the course design, and final implementation of the modified course design. Almost all class activities were done online except for periodical meetings for problem discussions. Information literacy definition, tool literacy, resource literacy, social literacy, research literacy, publishing literacy, and critical literacy were included in the course curriculum. Twenty-one and 18 students enrolled in the first and third semester of the study. Those students were invited to complete a survey consisting of 25 Likert-scale questions that asked about perception of blended-learning/teaching strategy, effectiveness of the blended course, and what was learned at the conclusion of the course. The majority of students perceived positively toward the teaching strategies, expressed that they understood more about information literacy, and presented abilities in applying information literacy skills in nursing. Structure of the course can be used to cultivate and improve nursing students’ competency in informatics. The teaching model can be used in future online courses.