Twenty-eighth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Online distance education provides nursing students with the opportunity for educational advancement and professional development while removing the barriers of time and geography. However, students additionally may experience sociopolitical barriers in higher education. This led to questioning if online nursing education can also move beyond sociopolitical and power distribution barriers. To explore this overarching question, separate literature reviews of peer-reviewed articles and reputable open access sources published between 2015 and 2020, were completed for three concepts. These concepts are: (1) effects of critical teaching and learning practices in online higher education, (2) characteristics of open educational practices (OEP) in higher education and, (3) connecting professional nursing values with critical or open teaching and learning practices in nursing education. Each literature review was coded and thematically developed independently of the others. The thematic analyses were then compared for similarities and differences. This study considers the five most prominent intersectional themes found across the reviews. These findings will be used to establish the direction of dissertation research exploring how critically framed OEPs can increase learner and educator satisfaction by revealing barriers and stimulants to the integration of strategies that create equitable teaching and learning environments. The findings will also highlight how nursing students’ educational experiences with critically framed OEPs can become a modelling experience for how to integrate socially just values into nursing practice.