Something Doesn't Add Up: Reimagining a Graduate Nursing Statistics Course

Nursing students tend to have negative feelings toward taking statistics courses. In an attempt to address these feelings, a nursing professor and a mathematics professor formed a partnership to reimagine and teach the required online, asynchronous statistics course for nursing graduate students.

The backward design approach was used to create effective learning experiences for students to meet learning outcomes. Evidence-based teaching strategies were utilized to ensure the course was inclusive and met best practices for online teaching. The perspectives of both a mathematician and nurse were vital in determining what would constitute evidence students had achieved the learning outcomes; statistical rigor was balanced with real-world applicability.

Students in the pilot group reported enjoying the course more than expected and also successfully met the learning outcomes.

This interdisciplinary partnership provided a multitude of benefits to student learning. We recommend nursing programs pilot coteaching required statistics courses.