Social cognitive theory explanation of nursing students' perceptions of specific nursing courses via two-way interactive video

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this research study was to use Bandura's (1986) Social Cognitive Theory to explain nursing students' perceptions of their learning experience as it was influenced by the environment, instructors, facilitators, and support personnel, in specific required nursing courses delivered via two-way interactive video. Participants in the study were a combination of 25 students, 20 on the origination-site and 5 on the remote-site, at a public, midwestern university. Most of the participating students were enrolled in two required nursing courses that were taught simultaneously over one academic semester. Particular attention was given to how nursing students reacted toward learning through a two-way interactive video setting. Naturalistic inquiry and Bandura's (1986) Social Cognitive Theory, focusing on triadic reciprocality, were used to explain how nursing students perceived their learning environment, the two-way interactive video setting. The methods for data collection included observations; focus group interviews of students and individual interviews of an instructor, facilitators, technical support personnel, and an administrator; an autoethnography of an instructor; and document artifacts.Findings and Conclusions: Findings from the study revealed that the majority of nursing students prefer learning through a traditional classroom setting as opposed to a two-way interactive video setting and identified the complexities associated with learning in the two-way interactive video setting that contributed to nursing students' perceptions. Naturalistic inquiry and Bandura's (1986) Social Cognitive Theory, focusing on triadic reciprocality, revealed nursing student perceptions are affected by previous two-way interactive video experience, a personal factor and by the environmental factors of technology problems and barriers, instructor technical experience and expertise and teaching strategies, equipment and upgrades, technical and administrative support, and facilitation. The interactions of these factors contributed to the negative experience with learning via two-way interactive video