Exploring undergraduate nursing students' experiences towards home-based learning as pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic: a descriptive qualitative exploration

Background The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to the need for educators to explore online platforms in delivering lessons to students. Home-based learning is one of the most commonly-used teaching methods that allow learning to take place despite a physical separation between the students and the educators. Methods A descriptive qualitative approach was used to explore the experiences of nursing undergraduates when using home-based learning as a pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from twenty-three nursing students (n = 14 in year one; n = 9 in year two) of their full-time pre-registration nursing program in a public-funded university in Singapore. Semi-structured interviews using an interview guide was conducted through Zoom-based video-conferencing from November 2020 to January 2021. The interview lasted between 45 and 65 min (median = 45 min). Data collection took place concurrently with thematic analysis through Braun and Clarke's six-step approach. This study was reported according to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research. Results Three main themes identified during the data analysis were: (1) challenges of home-based learning, where students detailed their experiences and difficulties encountered during the process; (2) the effectiveness of home-based learning, which explored the pedagogy's impact on the students' learning experience; and (3) students' motivation to learn, where the effects on student morale and motivation in partaking in learning tasks were discussed. Conclusions Results from this study suggested that universities should incorporate more home-based learning opportunities as home-based learning to continue playing a crucial role in the foreseeable future. Universities should continue to incorporate more home-based learning opportunities into the existing nursing curriculaa in order to test their capacities and address technical challenges in online learning. Future studies should also consider incorporating other pedagogical strategies when conducting lessons online.