Computer versus lecture: strategies for teaching fetal monitoring

The purpose of this study was to determine how well novice nurses learned basic fetal monitoring concepts from a computer-assisted instructional program and a scripted lecture with equivalent content. A pretest-posttest experimental design was conducted. Forty-eight junior baccalaureate nursing students beginning their first maternity rotation were recruited for the study from a southwestern university. Thirty-nine students provided complete data sets. None had prior experience or education in fetal monitoring. Two strategies were used to teach basic fetal monitoring concepts: a scripted lecture with black-and-white transparencies and an equivalent computer-assisted instructional program. Statistical significance was set at p = 0.05. There were no significant differences between the computer and lecture groups' learning on the basis of age, education, or vision. There was a positive, nonsignificant gain in mean scores from the pretest to the posttest for both groups. The greatest difference was in the program completion time with the computer-assisted instruction group completing the program 43.6% faster than the lecture group.