Relationship Between Nursing and Nurse Practitioner Instructors’ Online Teaching Self-Efficacy and Their Students’ Online Academic Self-Efficacy

AbstractTo meet the high demand for nurses and nurse practitioners (NPs) and address the national shortage of these professionals, nursing and NP schools are rapidly moving courses online. With this trend, and with the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities across the United States have been conducting classes in the online environment. The rapid transition from brick-and-mortar classes to online education has been a challenge for underprepared educators. The purpose of this correlational study was to investigate whether a relationship existed between potentially underprepared instructors’ online teaching self-efficacy and their students’ online academic self-efficacy. Bandura’s self-efficacy theory served as the theoretical framework. The research questions addressed the relationship of the instructors’ online teaching self-efficacy and the number of classes previously taught online, the online academic self-efficacy of students and the number of classes previously taken online, and the instructors’ and students’ respective self-efficacies in the online academic environment. Undergraduate and graduate nursing students (N = 211) and their instructors were recruited from one university. The instructors and students were given an online survey at the beginning of the course; students also completed a survey at the end of the course. Multiple regression was used to analyze the data. The number of classes previously taught predicted R2 = 0.58 of the variance in teachers’ online self-efficacy (β = -0.56, p = .000). The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by providing universities with data that can be used to inform decision making on what is important and not important for instructor and student self-efficacy and for promoting the graduation of more nurses and NPs who can enter the field