Development of a nursing education program for improving Chinese undergraduates' self-directed learning: A mixed-method study

• We establish a new extra-curricular education program for improving nursing students' self-directed learning.
• Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to evaluate the effectiveness of this program.
• The instructional designed extra-curricular education program contributes to a nursing undergraduates study.
• Personal influence, behavioral influence and environmental influence should be considered in self-directed learning.

SummaryObjectiveThis paper demonstrates the establishment of an extra-curricular education program in Chinese context and evaluates its effectiveness on undergraduate nursing students' self-directed learning.MethodsZimmerman's self-directed learning model was used as the theoretical framework for the development of an education program. Mixed-method was applied in this research study. 165 undergraduate students from a nursing college were divided into experimental group (n = 32) and control group (n = 133). Pre- and post-tests were implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of this education program using the self-directed learning scale of nursing undergraduates. Qualitative interview was undertaken within participants from the experimental group to obtain their insights into the influence of this program.ResultsBoth quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that the program contributed to nursing students' self-directed learning ability. In the experimental group, the post-test score showed an increase compared with pretest score (p < 0.05). The score of experimental group was higher than control group (p < 0.05) after 18 months training, while there was no difference between them before this program. Qualitative results from 9 students' experience were formulated as three main thematic categories: influence on awareness, influence on learning activities and influence on learning environment. It can be found in the qualitative analysis that learners benefited from this program.ConclusionThe education program contributes to the improvement of nursing undergraduates' self-directed learning. Various pedagogic methods could be applied for self-directed learning.