evaluation of nursing student's perception toward the use of audience response systems (ars) in the classroom teaching process

evaluation of nursing student's perception toward the use of audience response systems (ars) in the classroom teaching process     baghaei r [1] *, zareie f [2] , rasouli d [3] , sheykhi n [4]     received: 4 apr , 2013 accepted: 2 jun, 2013  abstract  background & aims : the use of innovative learning methods in nursing schools is necessary to improve the educational process. using audience response systems are one of the ways can be used to enhance of learning components and more improvement in student learning. the aim of this study was to evaluate nursing student's perception to use audience response systems in the classroom learning process .   materials & methods : this study was a quasi-experimental intervention conducted during the training sessions in a period for 44 final year nursing students in 2013, that the audience response system was used as an active learning technique. data have been collected by the questionnaire included demographic information, 14 items with a likert scale and 2 open-ended questions to assess students' views of the strengths and weaknesses of this system and finally analyzed by spss statistical software (ver. 16) and using descriptive and chi-square tests.   results: most students have positive perception to the using of audience response systems in lecture. 79/5% of students assess this system effective to improve student learning, 68/2% to help identify strengths and weaknesses, 86/4% to measurement of understanding rate of the content, 88/6% in make enjoyable learning experience and 93/2% in helping to focus and understanding of key issues. in open-ended questions, learning improvement as the major strength and potential fraud were cited as a major weakness for the system .   conclusion: students have positive view to the use of audience response systems in the learning process and this can result in greater use of active learning techniques can be helpful in nursing education.   key words: education process, nursing students, audience response system (ars)     address: nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran   tel: (+98) 441 2754961   email : [email protected]   [1] assistant professor, faculty nursing and midwifery, urmia university of medical sciences. (corresponding author)  [2] msc student in nursing education, faculty nursing and midwifery, urmia university of medical sciences  [3] medical education phd student, instructor, faculty nursing and midwifery, urmia university of medical sciences  [4] msc in statistics, urmia university of medical sciences