This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached
 copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research
 and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution
 and sharing with colleagues.
 Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or
 licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party
 websites are prohibited.
 In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the
 article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or
 institutional repository. Authors requiring further information
 regarding Elsevier?s archiving and manuscript policies are
 encouraged to visit:
 http://www.elsevier.com/copyright
Author's personal copy
 e-Support4U: An evaluation of academic writing skills support in practice
 Lauren Grif
ths a,*, Barbara Nicolls b,1
 a Faculty of Society and Health, Buckinghamshire New University, 106 Oxford Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 1NA, United Kingdom
 b Faculty of Society and Health, Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe Campus, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP11 2JZ, United Kingdom
 a r t i c l e i n f o
 Article history:
 Accepted 28 February 2010
 Keywords:
 Nursing
 Students
 Blended learning
 Social software
 Widening participation
 5-Stage framework
 a b s t r a c t
 The Faculty of Society and Health at Buckinghamshire New University is committed to the widening
 participation agenda and to providing support that enables our students to achieve the requirements of
 the programme and registration. Literacy and numeracy skill development is an integral part of the
 academic modules of our current pre-registration curriculum. E-Support4U was launched in semester
 two of 2008 with the aim of extending academic writing support beyond the con
nes of the University
 and into the practice arena. Evaluation of the project tentatively suggests that the scaffold approach to
 academic writing, based on Salmon?s 5-stage framework, may have contributed to a 100% pass rate for
 the reective practice-based assignment for this cohort of students. However, participants experienced
 issues around access; differing levels of IT skills, dispersed placements that contributed to a lack of active
 collaboration within the group. Recommendations include early introduction of blended learning and
 incorporation of web 2.0 technology into the curriculum.
 
 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Introduction
 The increase in students entering pre-registration through the
 widening participation route brings with it additional challenges in
 terms of exploring alternative modalities to support learning
 (Trotter, 2003) and the development of key skills. This has led to
 a signi
cant emphasis being placed on supporting students in the
 
rst year of pre-registration, with considerable resources being put
 in place to provide an environment that is enabling (Berkhradnia
 and Thompson, 2002). The effective delivery of the curriculum
 therefore depends on the adoption of a multiple approaches
 (Heywood, 2000) with active learning strategies being a prominent
 feature. One such strategy employed by Buckinghamshire New
 University is e-Support4U, which is an e-learning approach that
 provides students with support to develop English language skills
 for academic study and which transcends the traditional academic/
 practice boundary.
 There is an expectation that pre-registration students will
 quickly acquire academic writing skills when most have had little
 or no prior experience (Whitehead, 2002). Therefore, greater
 emphasis on academic writing and support throughout the whole
 period of training is needed to enable the development of these
 skills. In turn, this would improve both the quality of nurse grad-
 uates and attrition rates by preventing the loss of large numbers of
 students to the academic rigors of the educational program
 (Whitehead, 2002). The development of academic and transferable
 skills through the process of developing reading and writing skills
 was the project?s main driver. The main aim was to encourage
 deeper learning through more active/interactive approaches
 between tutor-student and studentestudent and creating a plat-
 form which would offer mutual support. Further aims are outlined
 in Fig. 1. This would enable con
rmed literacy support for 
rst year
 students both during the theory element of the programme and
 whilst in practice.
 Contextual background
 A large percentage of our pre-registration nursing candidates
 gain access through the widening participation initiative and
 therefore, have speci
c learning needs in terms of academic and key
 skills acquisition. The Faculty of Society and Health at Buck-
 inghamshire New University is commissioned by NHS London to
 provide pre- registration nurse education. Our annual intake is 420
 students across Adult, Mental Health and Child Health branches. At
 the beginning of their programme the students are allocated to
 a geographical home-base to carry out 2300 hours of practice
 learning. The home-base system is based on the clustering of
 placements drawn fromone or more of the 
veNHS Trusts and their
 allied Primary CareTrusts along with a largenumberof independent
 and private sector organisations across North West London and
 * Corresponding author. Tel.: ?44 1494 603080; fax: ?44 1494 603182.
 E-mail addresses: lauren.grif
ths@bucks.ac.uk (L. Grif
ths), barbara.nicolls@
 bucks.ac.uk (B. Nicolls).
 1 Tel.: ?44 1494 522141x3189; fax: ?44 1494 524392.
 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
 Nurse Education in Practice
 journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/nepr
 1471-5953/$ e see front matter 
 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2010.02.005
 Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348
Author's personal copy
 South Buckinghamshire. During their clinical placements the
 students are supported by a well-established link lecturer network
 drawn from 74 lecturers across three schools in the Faculty.
 The practice placements ostensively focus on the acquisition
 and application of knowledge and skills to practice. However, the
 practice module assessment requires the students to submit two
 reective practice-based assignments each year as part of their
 practice assessment; an example is provided in Fig. 2. The reective
 assignments provide the student not only with an opportunity to
 think critically about the world of nursing but also a medium
 whereby they are able to move away from a medical world-view to
 that of nursing (Johns, 1995; Platzer et al., 2000; Glaze, 2001).
 Furthermore, reection can provide personal and professional
 learning and transformation in that it assists the student to
 understand self and serves to inuence the student nurse?s values
 and assumptions whilst building self actualization (Richardson and
 Maltby, 1995).
 The e-Support4u framework
 It is recognised that there is a growing need to support learners
 in the educational arena, not only to acquire knowledge and
 information, but also to develop the resources and skills necessary
 to engage with the social and technical requirements associated
 with lifelong learning (Owen et al., 2006). The development of e-
 Support4U arose from a need to enable students to continue with
 academic writing skills support whilst in practice through the use
 of an e-learning platform. In other words, learning that is nurtured
 and facilitated by electronic technology to improve the learning
 experience of practice-based students through shared enterprise
 and participation in an array of online activities (Billings et al.,
 2005; Liaw et al., 2007).
 Theoretical framework: constructivism
 The pedagogical approach to e-Support4U is centred on Gilly
 Salmon?s 5-stage framework (Salmon, 2006) and takes a blended
 learning approach, drawing on a combination of constructivist
 theory, e-communication tools, including e-mail, Blogs, Wikis and
 the discussion board. The principles of the constructivist model
 acknowledges the uniqueness of learning in that it is set within
 a cultural and social context and discovered by the student through
 facilitated learning. E-Support4U is structured around constructivist
 principles outlined by Savery and Duffy (2006), which enables
 a developmental process with the aimof creating a successful online
 learning environment to support the process of learning (Fig. 3). The
 5-stage framework outlines a progression route that the students
 willmove through during their use of the e-learning technologyand
 highlights the key stages to be addressed within the e-learning
 programme. The stages start with the students? initial access and
 motivation, through to online socialisation, information exchange,
 knowledge construction, and 
nally onto development (Fig. 4),
 moving the emphasis from teacher-led to student-led learning
 (Murphy and Cifeuentes, 2001).
 Each e-tivity was designed to ensure they were relevant and
 closely related to the students? academic course; in this case the e-
 tivities represented the different stages of the academic writing
 process (Fig. 5). Students were guided through the 4-stage
 academic writing process of research, preparation, writing and
 reection to engender ownership on the students? part. At each
 stage, students construct knowledge through an active mental
 process of development to build and create meaning and knowl-
 edge (Peters, 2000). Nursing students on placement therefore, use
 prior theoretical knowledge and actively construct meaning;
 resulting in learning (Piaget, 1977). The e-tivities were designed to
 provide students with experiences that allowed them to hypothe-
 size, predict, manipulate objects, pose questions, research, inves-
 tigate, imagine, and invent. The e-moderator facilitated this process
 to encourage the students to engage with the subject matter and to
 support and challenge the students? thinking (Bennett and Lockye,
 2004; Savery and Duffy, 2006).
 Social software tools to support learning
 Learners engaging with virtual learning technology are said to
 feel connected with their peers, tutors and the organisation as
 a whole and are able to maintain the sense of community through
 asynchronous interaction that contributes to enhanced learning
 (Glogoff, 2005; Moule, 2005; Santy and Smith, 2007). A sense of
 Community in Learning (CoL) is claimed to foster group solidarity
 and a sense of common purpose enabling members to learn from
 each other (Velde and Lust, 2004; Tolson et al., 2005; Booth et al.,
 2007; Andrew and Ferguson, 2008). McLoughlin and Lee (2008)
 suggest extending this to the online environment through effec-
 tive integration of social software tools such as Blogs and Wikis in
 both face-to-face and online environments. Blogs are online social
  e-Support4U aims to: 
1. provide the participants with the skills to access and use Blackboard? and 
the associated social software tools, blogs and wikis,  to undertake a series of 
e-tivities representing the tasks in the academic writing process 
2. enhance the campus-based, face to face learning experience, specifically in 
the area of academic reading and writing skills 
3. develop independent learners through a structured, guided and flexible 
program
 4. encourage collaborative meaning to enhance their own learning through the 
online Community of Practice 
Fig. 1. e-Support4U aims.
 L. Grif
ths, B. Nicolls / Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348342
Author's personal copy
 spaces for collaborative writing and communication as well as
 compilation of reective logs or class learning logs (Dron, 2003;
 Oravec, 2003; Barton, 2005; Mackey, 2007) which aim to
 encourage interaction (Godwin-Jones, 2003) and participation in
 a blended learning environment. The Blog tool was used as
 a reective medium after the e-Support4U induction and at the end
 of their 
rst year.
 However, unless students are blog creators and users they may
 miss out on the bene
ts of blogging. One advantage is that self-
 publishing encourages ownership and responsibility on the part of
 students who may be more thoughtful in content and structure if
 they know they are writing for a real audience (Campbell, 2003).
 Blogging creates authentic discourse and forces students to think
 carefully about articulation, resulting in a measure of authenticity
 to learning tasks (Lowe and Williams, 2004). In turn, this facilitates
 the development of a CoL (Glogowski, 2005). By publishing the blog
 on the Internet the student has the possibility of writing for readers
 beyond classmates. This is not usually possible in discussion fora.
 When inpractice, students could set up agroup blogwhichassists
 in the collaborative construction of knowledge (Seitzinger, 2006)
 through reection, resource sharing and identifying meaning.
 Through thismodality learningoccurs due to the authentic discourse
 in the form of comments from the tutors and peers within the CoL,
 and therefore it is crucial for lecturers to ensure that the students
 engage with the learning tasks. Furthermore, the comments on Blog
 posts can be powerful feedback tools offering the learner or blog
 owner immediate and detailed responses to their thoughts and ideas
 thereby fostering higher level thinking through reection (Seitzinger,
 2006). Lee and Alan (2006) suggest that Blogs encourage continuous
 improvement through formative assessments and reect the
 Constructivist approach to teaching and learning.
 To provide constructive support as well as enable independent
 learning, e-Support4U employed structured Wiki-based e-tivites
 (scaffolding). The Wiki is an innovative means of creating, editing
 and disseminating information in an online environment. It is based
 on the principle of synergy where the knowledge of the group is
 greater than that of an individual and that those who use it are also
 those who create it. Similar to the Blog, the Wiki is an emerging
 technology based on web-based collaboration-ware (Boulos et al.,
 2006) which are now being embraced by educators as a means of
 actively engaging learners in communication and the construction
 of knowledge (Engstrom and Jewett, 2005; Boulos et al., 2006).
 One potential use of Wikis in education is to enable the group
 writing process where a group takes responsibility for creating
 their own content, learning from and collaborating with one
 another and building upon each other?s contributions. This enables
 the development of skills required for knowledge creation and
 encourages participation in new knowledge creation. This sharing
 and collaboration is believed to improve organisational learning,
 creation of new knowledge and knowledge reuse (Hall and Goody,
 2007). Therefore, the Wiki can be the ultimate tool for constructive
 learning as it provides individual and group interactivity, collabo-
 rative learning, cognitive tools and authenticity (EDUCAUSE
 Learning Initiative, 2005). The Wiki tool took the students
 through the process of understanding the assignment question
 towards summarising, paraphrasing, organising ideas and editing.
 Supplementary resources such as sample sentence structures for
  Reflective assignment
 Write a descriptive account of your experience of caring 
for a patient with diverse needs.  
?  Identify a patient who has diverse needs.  For example, they may have an 
array of conditions and/or a disability that poses a challenge to the delivery of 
clinical care.  
?  Why is it important to recognise and account for the patient?s diverse needs 
when delivering care? 
?  Were the patient?s diverse needs taken into account?  If so in what way? 
 OR 
?  If the patient?s diverse needs were not taken into account, how did this affect 
patient care? 
?  What were the consequences for the patient, yourself and others? 
?  How did you feel about the situation? 
?  What have you learnt from this experience? 
(based on The Framework for Reflexive Practice, Rolf, Freshwater and Jasper, 2001) 
Fig. 2. Reective assignment.
  Constructivist Principles (Savery & Duffy, 2006) 
1.  All learning activities are linked to the wider task. 
2. Students are supported to have ownership of their learning. 
3. Learning activities are designed to reflect real problems. 
4. The learning process is designed to support students to challenge their 
thinking.
 5. Enable reflection on the process and the content.  
Fig. 3. Constructivist principles (Savery and Duffy, 2006).
 L. Grif
ths, B. Nicolls / Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348 343
Author's personal copy
 writing descriptions, cause and effect, compare and contrast were
 provided to support their learning in addition to transition signals
 for organising thoughts and ideas.
 In the context of e-Support4U, the Wiki is a valuable tool not
 only for developing skills for individual content creation, self- and
 peer-review for the purpose of learning but also as an assessment
 tool. The use of the Wiki as an assessment tool was considered
 feasible as the students were working in different placement areas,
 in different geographical home-bases and undertaking different
 shifts; therefore, the content of their academic assignment would
 vary and copying of facts would be dif
cult.
 Evaluation of e-Support4u
 Seventeen students from a group who had undertaken a total of
 25 hours of face-to-face academic writing skills development in the
 previous semester, agreed to participate in the project. All had
 accessed the University Virtual Learning Environment, Blackboard
 , in the 
rst semester but had never used social software such as
 Blogs and Wikis. Through e-Support4U, they were given 20 guided
 learning hours including an induction delivered via Blackboard 
 and 10 hours of independent study that included preparation for
 assignments.
 Fig. 4. The 
ve-stage framework for effective online teaching and learning.
 Fig. 5. 5 Stage framework: E-tivities programme.
 L. Grif
ths, B. Nicolls / Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348344
Author's personal copy
 The triple P framework (Ryba et al., 2002), an evidence-based
 approach, was used to test the speci
c evaluation questions (Fig. 6)
 and propositions about the data gathering methods. This enabled
 the analysis of the perceptions, processes and products of learning
 (Fig. 7) at each of the 5 stages of online learning. It also enabled
 triangulation of the results leading to de
nitive statements about
 the outcomes associated with developing academic writing skills
 through e-Support4U.
 Four approaches to data collection were taken to evaluate the
 project: an online self-assessment quiz, Blackboard  access data,
 and results from the reective assignments and an evaluation Blog.
 The data obtained enabled the compilation of descriptive statistics
 and qualitative narrative that illustrate the participant?s percep-
 tions and experiences of using social software to evolve their
 academic writing skills whilst in practice. Anonymity has been
 applied to all qualitative data.
 Evaluation results
 The participants? perceptions
 The online self-assessment questionnaire and the e-Support4U
 programme evaluation Blog focussed on the participants? percep-
 tion of the value and effectiveness of the Blackboard  and asso-
 ciated Blogs and Wikis as a learning tool, the e-tivities as a scaffold
 to guide them through the process of academic writing and online
 learning. The 
ndings showed a 100% positive response to the
 online academic support provided through e-Support4U to the
 students whilst on their practice placements. The Wiki pages were
 rated highly by three students who used the tool regularly to
 contribute to their e-tivities:
 ?I can improvemy writing skills: it requires careful thought, proof
 reading skills prior to uploading any work for public viewing.?
 ?The e-moderator?s feedback is visible all the time.?
 ?I can comment on my peers? contribution as well.?
 The perceived barriers related to accessibility, problems 
nding
 the time for computer use on the wards, the students? limited IT
 skills and the placing of the e-Support4U programme on Black-
 board  as a stand-alone organisation shell rather than having it
 embedded into the respective module shell. Students highlighted
 that they had limited access to Blackboard  through the ward
 based computers but some of the participants accessed e-Sup-
 port4U via the campus-based Learning Resources computers.
 The 7 e-tivities were described as clearly structured and
 exempli
ed with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions:
 ?The model paragraphs showed us what we were expected to
 produce.?
 ?Guidelines on understanding the assignment questions were
 helpful.?
 All the participants felt that continuous developmentof academic
 writing skills was possible in theory through Blackboard due to its
 24/7 availability. However, for some students learning to apply
 theory to practice and accessing Blackboard  for writing skills
 development simultaneously was found to be unmanageable. This
 was especially the case where students had competing demands
 between their social commitments andwork resulting in a feeling of
 frustration at not beingable to participate. Some64% found accessing
 the information on Blackboard confusing and complicated whilst
 another 64% expressed their disappointmentwith their peers as they
 were inaccessible through Blackboard  and the social software
 tools. This was also evident on the Wiki pages where the group Wiki
 pages had been accessed by only 2-3 members:
 ?I 
nd it easier to telephone or e-mail my e-moderator if I need
 help.?
 ?It is agoodwayofhelpingyourself if youcanaccessBlackboard.?
 ?I can also go back to the Wiki to learn from previous errors.?
 Student participation
 An analysis of the summary of Blackboard  usage and its
 components between February and May 2008 showed that 100% of
 the participants accessed the announcements. Just over half (53%)
 used the e-mail at least once either to initiate the communication
 or to respond to the e-moderator?s messages. Some 41% never
 accessed the group pages and this was evident through the e-tiv-
 ities not being completed in groups (e-tivity 6 &7). E-tivities 4e7
 were accessed 280 times, the second largest component used from
 February to May 2008, though 24% never accessed the e-tivities and
 therefore, did not contribute to the tasks (Fig. 8).
 The 5-stage framework
 Stage 1: access and motivation
 The following comments demonstrated accessibility as a cause
 for concern:
 ?I don?t yet have internet access at home so I must make time to
 use the computer at the of
ce if I am allowed.?
 ?I need broadband to access the e-tivities.?For others, online
 communication motivated them:
  Focus of the evaluation
 The study evaluated the: 
1. participant?s perceptions on the extent to which the use of social software 
(Blogs and Wikis) effectively enhanced the development of their academic 
writing.  
2. extent to which being members of the Community of Practice enhanced their 
learning 
3. extent to which the participants? use of e-Support4U and the associated 
learning and communication tools affected the attrition rate  
Fig. 6. Focus of the evaluation.
 L. Grif
ths, B. Nicolls / Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348 345
Author's personal copy
 ?It was great to get to know others on the course so I will know
 who is posting comments in the future. I learnt how to use the
 Blog and WIKI for the 
rst time so that was great.?
 ?This session has been very informative and has given me an
 overview of what I can expect from being a member of this
 online community, and also, what will be expected of me.?
 Stage 2: online socialisation
 This was evident during Induction, with participants giving
 their peers encouragement and support about their forthcoming
 practice placement through their Blogs. Some comments focussed
 on their mentors who were key to the placement experience.
 Others stressed how much they were looking forward to the
 opportunity of applying theory to practice which appeared to
 encourage and support their peers.
 ?Hi everyone; this is my third placement. On the ward, the daily
 routine is setting a linen trolley and lots of admissions packs for
 booked patients with renal investigations. I learnt a lot about the
 kidneys I have learnt a new language with different terminology
 and lots of abbreviations.?
 ?Hi everyone I hope you are all enjoying your placement. As
 you can see on the discussion board I have not been
 participating; that is because I have been very busy at work
 and I have no pc at home.?
 The student had shared anxieties but the feeling of mutual
 support amongst the participants was evident during this period.
 However, this activity disappeared once placement duties and
 responsibilities developed.
 Stage 3: information exchange
 Initially the participants exchanged information about their
 placements, in particular thoughts around the situations they
 encountered:
 ?I?m having an unpleasant time at my placement. I hate it! The
 mentor is very unhelpful - does not have time for me; she is
 unapproachable and has bad body language. I am the only
 student there. Has anyone been in this situation? Can you advise
 what I can do to overcome this problem??and the anxiety about
 writing their assignments:
 ?All, there is too much information on my assignment, could
 please summarise the assignment questions????
 Conversely, course information exchange was limited to inter-
 action with the course content (resources, e-tivities 4e6) and the e-
 moderator. The lack of interaction with peers was evident in the
 unused group pages.
 Stage 4: knowledge construction
 Four participants completed e-tivities (4e6) through the scaf-
 fold approach using the resources in the resource folder which
 allowed knowledge-building relating to types of sentences, tran-
 sition signals for description, cause and effect, compare and
 contrast paragraphs. Lack of active participation by the remaining
 13 students was evident; nevertheless, Blackboard access reports
 demonstrated that they had viewed the resources and constructed
 knowledge independent of the e-moderator and of their colleagues.
 The positive results of the Guided Dialogues supported the belief
 that learning occurred albeit in a non-collaborative manner which
 is in contrast to the literature.
 Stage 5: development
 The intention of the e-Support4U reective evaluation was to
 encourage the students to learn from reection and to enable the
 development of self-awareness. The exercise also enabled the
 students to make judgements about their experiences using e-
 Support4U which brought about the building of knowledge
 (Salmon, 2006) in this case around academic writing and IT skill
  Components of the analysis 
? Perceptions: the participants? own views about their feeling and experiences 
with online learning through e-Support4U  
? Processes: analysis of online access, interaction, participation, contribution 
patterns
 ? Products: observable outcomes of learning in the form of academic 
paragraphs using Blogs and Wikis on Blackboard ? posted individually. 
Fig. 7. Components of the analysis.
  Summary of Blackboard ? component usage
 tsneduts:oN
 accessing 
% No: Students not 
accessing 
%
 Announcements 17 100% 0 0% 
e-mail 9 53% 8 47%
 Discussion Board 13 76% 4 24%
 Groups 10 59% 7 41%
 Staff Information 11 65% 6 35%
 Tools area 13 76% 4 24%
 e-tivities 13 76% 4 24%
 Fig. 8. Summary of Blackboard component usage.
 L. Grif
ths, B. Nicolls / Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348346
Author's personal copy
 development. However, only 2 participants completed this task
 using Wikis rather than the Blog tool which had been set up for the
 reective evaluation. The 100% pass rate for the written assign-
 ments could be interpreted as participants taking responsibility for
 their own learning but not necessarily for their peers? learning.
 Discussion
 Access and motivation concerns remained throughout the
 project. However, it appeared that the students managed to access
 the resources which enabled them to contribute to the Wiki-based
 academic writing e-tivities. This suggested that the resources are
 not central to the learning process, rather they are considered to be
 an aid to learning in keeping with the epistemology of instructi-
 vism (Moule, 2005). Furthermore, this perhaps demonstrates traits
 associated with an independent learner which may have contrib-
 uted to the 100% pass rate. However, the extrinsic motivational
 factors that encouraged the students to access the resources were
 insuf
cient to encourage participation in the Wiki-based collabo-
 rative e-tivities. These required interaction and socialisation in
 a learning community to build knowledge that is dynamic and
 evolutionary. This may be because this was the participants? 
rst
 experience of Wikis in a learning context and therefore, they felt
 uncomfortable in correcting and editing their peers? work.
 Interaction and engagement with course content and the
 lecturer resulted in one-to-one support with active participants
 and shared with the rest of the CoL through the Wiki pages. Many
 hours were devoted to creating an online presence: a psychological
 perception for students that the lecturer is omnipresent and
 responding to them in an online class. This was considered critical
 to the overall success of the project as students engaging with
 distance and online learning often experience feelings of isolation
 because of the lack of interaction (Boyle and Wambach, 2001;
 Thiele, 2003) or the lack of connection with the campus-based
 lecturers and support mechanisms (Billings et al., 2005; Mancuso-
 Murphy, 2006). Ultimately, this could lead to attrition, instructional
 ineffectiveness and failing academic achievement, negative atti-
 tudes and overall dissatisfaction with the learning experience
 (Mueller, 2001; Thompson, 2002; Cuellar, 2002; Kozlowski, 2004).
 Anecdotal evidence suggests that the students bene
ted from
 this blended learning approach, giving them some con
dence in
 their writing and computer skills and contributing to the successful
 completion of their reective assignment. The use of Blackboard
 and associated Blogs and Wikis as learning tools enabled academic
 support to transcend the traditional boundaries of the University to
 the practice setting. The e-tivities provided a useful scaffold that
 guided them through the process of academic writing and enabled
 the application of learning in a structured way. Nevertheless, the
 fundamental issues relating to access, the need for technical skills
 and support, facilitation issues and dispersed group working
 appeared to have contributed to the lack of active collaboration and
 construction of meaning and therefore, require addressing in order
 to develop a true CoL.
 Recommendations
 A number of recommendations arose from the evaluation of the
 
rst phase of the e-Support4U project. Firstly, it is apparent that
 students need to be introduced to the blended learning approach
 while they are on campus to resolve IT skill acquisition and acces-
 sibility issues; subsequent cohorts bene
tted from this approach.
 Secondly, web 2.0 technology needs to be incorporated into class-
 room delivery of the curriculum, such as the use of Blogs to enable
 the development of reective skills, discussion boards for
 communicating ideas and clarifying concepts and the introduction
 of Wikis to encourage collaborative learning. However, the expe-
 rience of the 
rst group highlights that the tools need to be
 employed in a systematic way, in different learning contexts and at
 different times of the learning journey. For example, Blogs or
 discussion board could be utilised for gathering nursing module-
 related information initiated by subject-speci
c tutors. Wikis could
 be used to support and enable students to practise academic
 writing in a collaborative way, with pieces of work arising from this
 being peer reviewed followed by tutor feedback. It is proposed that
 an interdisciplinary approach is adopted, where subject content
 and skills tutors collaborate to deliver the technology-enhanced
 curriculum. Ultimately this will enable the development of an
 appropriate skill base to ensure nurses are 
t-for-purpose and able
 to engage with a changing technological environment.
 References
 Andrew, N.O., Ferguson, D., 2008. Constructing communities of learning in nursing.
 International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship 5 (1). http://www.
 bepress.com/ijnes/vois/iss1/art24 [Online] Available fromaccessed 23.01.07.
 Barton, M., 2005. The future of rational-critical debate in online public spheres.
 Computers and Composition 22, 177e190.
 Bennett, S., Lockye, L., 2004. Becoming an online teacher: adapting to a changed
 environment for teaching and learning in higher education. Educational Media
 International 41, 231e244.
 Berkhradnia, B., Thompson, J., 2002. Reection of success [Online] Available from
 Guardian Education http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/Oct/15/students.
 highereducation1 (accessed 08/07/09).
 Billings, D.M., Skiba, D.J., Connors, H.R., 2005. Best practices in web-based courses:
 generational differences across undergraduate and graduate nursing students.
 Journal of Professional Nursing. 21, 126e133.
 Booth, J., Tolson, D., Hotchiss, R., Scho
eld, I., 2007. Using a learning community to
 enhance course integration in a school of allied health. Journal of Allied Health
 33 (1), 55e61.
 Boulos, M.N.K., Maramba, I., Wheeler, S., 2006. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new
 generation of web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and
 education [Online] Available from. BMC Medical Education 6 (41). http://www.
 biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41 (accessed July 2007).
 Boyle, D.K., Wambach, K.A., 2001. Interaction in graduate nursing web-based
 instruction. Journal of Professional Nursing 17, 128e134.
 Campbell, A.P., February 2003. Weblogs for use with ESL classes. Available from. The
 Internet TESL Journal. [Online] IX (2). http://iteslj.org (accessed May 2007).
 Cuellar, N., 2002. Tips to increase success for teaching online: communication.
 Dron, J., 2003. The blog and the borg: a collective approach to e-learning. In: E-
 Learn 2003. AACE, Phoenix, AZ.
 EDUCAUSE, Learning Initiative, 2005. 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs
 [online] Available from. http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7006.pdf
 (accessed 08.07.07).
 Engstrom, M.E., Jewett, D., 2005. Collaborative learning the Wiki way. Tech Trends:
 Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning 49 (6), 12e15. 68.
 Glaze, J., 2001. Reection as a transforming process: student advanced nurses
 practitioners? experiences of developing reective skills as part of an MSc
 programme. Journal of Advanced Nursing 34 (5), 639e647.
 Glogoff, S., 2005. Instructional blogging: promoting interactivity, student-centered
 learning and peer input. Available from. Innovate [online] 1 (5). www.innovate.
 info/index.php?view?article&;id?126 (accessed 11.01.07).
 Glogowski, K., 2005. Tools Interiorised [online]. 1(5). Available from. http://www.
 teachandlearn.ca.blog/2005/12/07tools-interiorized (accessed 11.01.07).
 Godwin-Jones, R., 2003. Emerging technologies e blogs and Wikis: environments
 for on-line collaboration. Available from. Language Learning & Technology
 [online] 7 (2), 12e16. http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging (accessed
 08.01.07).
 Hall, H., Goody, M., 2007. KM, culture and compromise: interventions to promote
 knowledge sharing supported by technology in corporate environments. Jour-
 nal of Information Science 33 (2), 181e188.
 Heywood, J., 2000. Assessment in Higher Education. Jessica Kingsley Publishers,
 London.
 Johns, C., 1995. Framing learning through reection with Carper?s fundamental
 ways of knowing in nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing 22 (2), 226e234.
 Kozlowski, D., 2004. Factors for consideration in the development and imple-
 mentation of an RN-BSN course: faculty and student perceptions. Computers
 Informatics, Nursing 20, 108e114.
 Lowe, C., Williams, T., 2004. Moving to the public: weblogs in the writing classroom
 [online] Available from. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/moving_to_the_
 public.html (accessed 08.07.07).
 Lee, J., Alan, 2006. Edublogs as an online assessment tool. http://www.formatex.
 org/micte2006/pdf/391-395.pdf [online] Available from(accessed 31.03.09).
 Liaw, S.S., Huang, H.M., Chen, G.D., 2007. Surveying instructor and learner attitudes
 toward e-learning. Computers and Education 49 (4), 1066e1080.
 L. Grif
ths, B. Nicolls / Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348 347
Author's personal copy
 Mackey, T.P., 2007. The social informatics of blog and Wiki communities: authoring
 communities of practice (CoPs). Proceedings of Canadian Association for
 Information Science, Montreal, Canada, 1e14.
 Mancuso-Murphy, J., 2006. Distance education in nursing: an integrated review of
 online nursing students? experiences with technology-delivered instruction.
 Journal of Nursing Education. 46 (6), 252e260.
 McLoughlin, C., Lee, M.J.W., 2008. Future learning landscapes: transforming pedagogy
 through social software [online]. Available from. Innovate 4 (5). http://innovate
 online.info/index.php?view?article&id?539&action?article (accessed 12.06.08).
 Moule, P., 2005. E-learning for healthcare students: developing the communities of
 practice framework Ed. D. Thesis. University of West of England, Bristol.
 Mueller, C.L., 2001. Masters in nursing students? experiences as a member of
 a virtual classroom on the Internet (doctoral dissertation, Indiana University,
 2001). Dissertation Abstracts International, 62(08), 3557B (UMI No.3024230)
 Murphy, K.L., Cifeuentes, L., 2001. Using web tools, collaborating and learning
 online. Distance Education 22, 285e305.
 Oravec, J., 2003. Blending by blogging: weblogs in blended learning initiatives.
 Journal of Educational Media 28 (2e3), 225e233.
 Owen, M., Grant, L., Sayers, S., Facer, K., 2006. Social software and learning [online].
 Available from. http://www.futurelab.org.uk/download/pdfs/research/opening_
 education/Social_Software_report.pdf (accessed 20.12.07).
 Peters, M., 2000. Does constructivist epistemology have a place in nursing educa-
 tion. Journal of Nursing Education 39 (4), 166e172.
 Piaget, J., 1977. The Development of Thought: Equilibration of Cognitive Structures
 (A. Rosin, Trans.). The Viking Press, New York.
 Platzer, H., Blake, D., Ashford, D., 2000. Barriers to learning from reection: a study
 of the use of groupwork with post-registration nurses. Journal of Advanced
 Nursing 31 (5), 1001e1008.
 Ryba, K., Selby, L., Mentis, M., 2002. Analysing the effectiveness of online learning
 communities [online]. http://www.ecu.edu.au/conferences/herdsa/main/
 papers/nonref/pdf/KenRyba.pdf (accessed 01.06.08).
 Richardson, G., Maltby, H., 1995. Reection-on-practice: enhancing student
 learning. Journal of Advanced Nursing 22 (2), 235e242.
 Salmon, G., 2006. E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning. Routledge Falmer,
 London.
 Santy, J.L., Smith, L., 2007. Being an E-Learner in Health and Social Care - a Student's
 Guide. Routledge, Oxon.
 Savery, J.R., Duffy, T.M., 2006. Problem based learning: an instructional model and
 its constructivist framework. In: Wilson, B. (Ed.), Constructivist Learning
 Environments: Case Studies in Instructional Design. Educational Tehcnology,
 Englewood Cliffs, MJ.
 Seitzinger, J., 2006. Be constructive: blogs, podcasts and Wikis as constructivist
 learning tools. Available from. The e-learning Guild?s Learning Solutions
 [online]. http://www.elearningguild.com/articles/abstracts/index.cfm?
 id?190&action?viewonly (accessed 03.01.09).
 Thiele, J.E., 2003. Learning patterns of online students. Journal of Nursing Education.
 42, 364e366.
 Thompson, G., 2002. How can correspondence-based distance education be
 improved? A survey of attitudes of students who are not well disposed toward
 correspondence study. Journal of Distance Education 5 (1), 53e65.
 Tolson, D., McAloon, M., Hotchkiss, R., Sco
eld, I., 2005. Progressing evidence based
 practice: an effective nursing model. Journal of Advanced Nursing 50 (3),
 124e133.
 Trotter, E., 2003. Enhancing the early student experience. A report to the Teaching
 and Learning Development Sub-committee University of Salford [Available
 online]. http://www.edu.salford.ac.uk/docs/enhancing_student_exp.rtf
 (accessed 21.02.07).
 Velde, B.P., Lust, C., 2004. Using a learning community to enhance course integra-
 tion in a school of allied health. Journal of Allied Health 33 (1), 55e61.
 Whitehead, D., June 2002. The academic writing experiences of a group of student
 nurses: a phenomenological study. Journal of Advanced Nursing 38 (5),
 498e506 (9).
 L. Grif
ths, B. Nicolls / Nurse Education in Practice 10 (2010) 341e348348