Virtual education effect on cognitive learning and attitude of nursing students towards it

BACKGROUND Along with emersion of the Internet, virtual education increasingly has been growing. Many studies discussed this method and its impact on learning. Present study investigated students' attitude towards virtual education as well as its effect on learning. METHODS This was a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study. The nursing students, who had selected fluids and electrolyte disorders course, were randomly divided into two virtual and conventional education groups. The knowledge of students was assessed through a written exam and students' attitude towards virtual education assessed by a researcher-made questionnaire. RESULTS Mean scores of students in pretest were 0.8 (0.3) and 1.1 (0.59) in virtual and conventional group respectively [mean (SD)]. At the end of the semester their scores were 15.9 (0.58) and 16.51 (0.89) respectively. Mean attitude scores at baseline were 3.19 (0.48) and 3.21 (0.33) followed by 3.55 (0.45) and 3.21 (0.46) at the end of the semester in virtual and conventional groups respectively. CONCLUSIONS Although the scores of conventional group at the end of the course were higher than virtual group, both methods acted similarly in terms of increasing the knowledge. Passing a virtual education course may improve the attitude of the nurses towards it.