Snippets: Tools for teaching on two levels

Abstract

There are times when the opportunity to create a novel approach to teaching presents itself. This is true of the following innovative approach to teaching difficult concepts using a dual level method to enhance comprehension by undergraduate nursing students. The purpose of this case study was to use short video recordings called Snippets, which were previously recorded by the instructor as a new two-level learning activity to augment nursing students’ grasp of difficult concepts in a conventional didactic classroom, and to determine whether there was a difference in student satisfaction between didactic real-time presentations and didactic recorded 15-to-30 minute sessions with faculty present in the classroom. A mixed methods approach was used. Although there was no statistically significant difference in students’ satisfaction between the two methods of lecture as reported by survey methods, content analysis supported using Snippets as an ‘accessible’ strategy for teaching on two levels to enhance learning. It is useful teaching strategy available to faculty in conventional nursing programs to augment learning for particularly difficult conceptual material.