The subjects for this study were 38 students of nursing in the first and second years of a baccalaureate program at a Canadian university. The two classes totalling approximately 200 students received a presentation informing them of the research and requesting their participation. Although interest in volunteering for research, and in the use of computers for learning, was expected to be sufficient motivation, a further opportunity in two lotteries for $100 each was offered to those who fully participated in the study. The members of this self-selected sample were randomly assigned to the nine synchronous dyads, nine asynchronous dyads, and one face-to-face dyad.
The nursing student population was chosen for a number of reasons. First, nursing has a need for innovative educational practice to meet upgrading and continuing education requirements for members of the profession distributed widely across Canada. Second, nurses, like other professionals, are integrating computers with many aspects of their practice. Third, communication skills are a professional requirement in nursing and the students receive specific training for them. Fourth, the students in this sample, as a normal component of their curriculum, had experience with a computer-assisted instruction program used to introduce them to nursing diagnosis@Cite(YoderME84a). This was expected to help reduce variation in the subjects' acquaintance with computers prior to participating in the study.
Finally, the research was carried out by a nurse (myself), and my professional interests and experience are aligned with health care in general, and nursing education in particular. Since the content of the computer-mediated communication was to undergo close examination, familiarity with the topic (nursing process, nursing diagnosis, and nursing care planning) was necessary during the classification and coding of data elements.
