Psychological Effect of Mobile Learning on the Performance and Attitudes of Nursing Students during Covid-19 at Nursing College, King Khaled University

Abstract

Background: The appearance of COVID19 virus obligated the world to remote learning. Mobile applications are one of the most accessible methods. The study is done to evaluate how mobile learning can affect both performance and attitudes of students in the nursing field.

Study design and subjects: an interventional study included 70 third-years nursing students enrolled in the study by using simple random sampling technique. Two groups were obtained by dividing the sample in to study group using mobile and control group which depend on the traditional methods.

Setting: The study was carried out at College of Nursing, ABHA, King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Three data collecting tools used in this study including questionnaire about the knowledge, the student clinical evaluation checklist, and the attitude scale toward mobile learning.

Results: the intervention group achieved a satisfactory knowledge level (85.7%) but control group nursing students had an unsatisfactory knowledge in about (65.7%). About half of nursing students who used mobile during their learning process received excellent+ and excellent grades,(34.3% and 20%, respectively), compared to 14.3% and 5.7% of those taught using traditional clinical sessions. A bout (97.1%) was found to have a positive attitude regarding the learning through mobile.

 Conclusion and Recommendation: mobile educational applications were a useful learning tool for enhancing practice and knowledge. The positive attitude reported toward using the mobile in learning highlights the need for adding more mobile-based applications in the curriculum to enhance learning of undergraduate nurses. In addition we need more incorporation of modern technologies including mobiles into all fields of education either theoretical or practical.

Keywords: Attitude, Covid-19, Mobile learning, Nursing students, Performance