DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERACTIVE REUSABLE ENQUIRY BASED LEARNING (EBL) RESOURCE TO HELP TREAT EBL FATIGUE

This paper will discuss the strategies employed to help combat EBL fatigue by the development of an innovative, interactive, reusable EBL resource. The use of EBL for Graduate Entry Nursing (GEN) is not new. As an institution, we were becoming increasingly concerned about how EBL fatigue was infiltrating group work, affecting both students and facilitators to the detriment of student learning. EBL fatigue can be identified as lack of engagement presenting with the following symptoms:
• Poor or non-attendance
• Lack of motivation and willingness to engage with the resource material
• Friction within the group as the student feels cheated by his/her peers for poor quality work
• A desire to be actively taught instead of being a proactive learner
• EBL is seen as a meaningless burden to go through in order to get through the course.
• Students are assessment driven and want to know what they need to know to pass.
• The student’s presentation of material can be tedious and result in disengagement with the group or activity.
With this in mind, a task and finish group was set up to establish strategies in order to overcome this condition. This is where the reusable resource was conceived. An electronic interactive EBL resource was developed to demonstrate how students and facilitators can best engage with EBL for effective learning. This resource is available to both students and facilitators throughout the course to ensure consistency. It has also become a valuable teaching tool for facilitators new to the EBL process, who may feel apprehensive when facilitating an EBL case outside of their speciality.
To date, the electronic EBL resource has been well received by both students and facilitators. Not only has the standardisation of EBL been addressed, but it has also enabled the students to ‘see’ what is required of them. This vision has enabled students to produce work in a variety of formats that they may not have experienced before. It also encouraged them to come out of their comfort zone and grow as individuals, not only academically but also in the development of their ‘soft skills’ i.e. working in a team, managing group dynamics, etc. Students are often apprehensive that they are doing EBL "right" and this resource has helped reassure them.
The aim of this paper is to share our experiences of developing an interactive reusable resource to help combat EBL fatigue.