The effects of group blogging on the attitude towards virtual education in nursing students

Background: Virtual education refers to a variety of teaching-learning methods that are implemented and supported electronically. The present study was conducted to determine the effects of group blogging on the attitude of nursing students towards virtual education. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study in which all fifth-semester nursing students (n=25) were selected and asked to design educational blogs on nursing of respiratory diseases. Attitudes of the participants towards virtual education were measured before and after the intervention. Results: Pretest and posttest mean±SD were 2.98±1.03 and 3.46±0.68, respectively, showing a significant difference (p<0.05). There were significant differences before and after the intervention in the 2 subscales of importance of virtual education and interest in using virtual environment (p<0.05). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the anxiety of using virtual environment before and after the intervention. Conclusion: In general, the results revealed that blogging by nursing students could improve students’ attitudes towards virtual education.