Co-opting learners: addressing their learning support needs through a learning support needs questionnaire. part two. a comparison of the learning support needs of campus and distance-based community nurse students

Abstract

This article is a continuation of a previous article (Moreland & Carnwell, 2000) where the development and background of the Learning Support Needs Questionnaire (LSNQ) was explained. The LSNQ identifies and elicits practical, emotional and academic learning support needs, and is followed by an action planning process designed to assist the students to address any learning needs considered important but not met. Following on, this article presents the results of the first application of the questionnaire to two groups of nursing students - one group of distance learning based and one group of campus-based students. Whilst the distance education students overall had lower expectations of the different types of support than campus based students, both groups had significant but slightly different learning support needs. The failure to address the significant unmet learning needs by both the learners themselves and the providing institutions is likely to lead to unsatisfactory learning experiences and reduced achievements, though the results do have to be treated with caution until further research is carried out.