ORIGINAL PAPER
Nagoya J. Med. Sci. 85. 319–332, 2023
doi:10.18999/nagjms.85.2.319

Usefulness of an online learning program for new nursing
faculty members
Nahoko Nakagawa1 and Toyoaki Yamauchi2
1

Department of Nursing, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan
2
Division of Human Life and Health Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
The Open University of Japan, Chiba, Japan

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of an online learning program, Learning
Program for New Faculty Members, in conveying knowledge of educational practice to newly appointed
nursing faculty members. The study participants were assistant professors and research associates from nursing programs in Japan, with less than 5 years of educational experience. In total, 99 people participated inthis study, and data from 97 were analyzed. Participants in the control group (43) were frequency matchedto those in the intervention group (54) for sex, age, final degree, clinical experience, and academic experience. A pre-test was conducted using an original questionnaire, and there were no significant differences
between the two groups in knowledge about educational practice. The intervention group then participatedin the Learning Program for New Faculty Members online, at their convenience. After the intervention, a
post-test was conducted. In the intervention group, post-test scores were significantly higher for all items
except Item 3 (Conducting Class). The intervention and control groups’ post-test scores were 23.55 vs
16.90 for Item 1 (Student Understanding and Support), 28.20 vs 22.17 for Item 2 (Syllabus and Class
Design) and 5.40 vs 2.97 for Item 4 (Understanding of Educational Theories). The Learning Program for
New Faculty Members was therefore considered to be effective in helping newly appointed nursing faculty
members to acquire knowledge. The program was able to overcome the time and environmental constraintsof newly appointed nursing faculty members.
Keywords: new faculty members, online program, educational practice, nursing, faculty development
Abbreviation:
BSN: bachelor of science in nursing
This is an Open Access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
License. To view the details of this license, please visit (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

INTRODUCTION
The number of bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) programs in Japan increased from 11
in 1991 to 255 in 2017.1 This has led to an urgent need to secure nursing faculty members.
However, it is important to assure the quality of nursing faculty members to maintain the quality
Received: March 4, 2022; accepted: July 29, 2022
Corresponding Author: Nahoko Nakagawa, MSc
Department of Nursing, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1-20 Daiko-minami, Higashi-ku,
Nagoya 461-8673, Japan
Tel: +81-52-719-1567, Fax: +81-52-719-1567, E-mail: nakagawa513@heisei-u.ac.jp319

Nahoko Nakagawa and Toyoaki Yamauchi

of basic nursing education.
The Japan Council of Colleges of Nursing conducted a survey on the educational content andmethods used by graduate programs that prepare BSN faculty. Overall, 20.8% of the graduate programs did not offer courses related to nursing education/pedagogy. There were also controversies
about pedagogical education among graduate programs.2 It therefore seemed likely that graduate
students would have difficulty acquiring both educational and research skills in the limited time
available for graduate study. Educators in charge of graduate nursing programs are aware of theneed for pedagogical education of potential nursing faculty members, but there seem to be barriers
to acquiring this education.2 It is thought that some graduate students may choose to become
nursing faculty members after obtaining their degrees. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology has suggested that efforts should be made in the latter half of nursing
doctoral courses to “set up opportunities to cultivate abilities necessary for teaching knowledge
or provide information on such opportunities” (so-called pre-faculty development) as preparatory
education.3 Education to acquire teaching ability is also being promoted.3
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Central Council for
Education published a “Report on the Future of Higher Education in Japan”. This states thatfaculty development is “an organized effort by faculty members to improve and enhance thecontent and methods of their teaching”.4 Faculty development is carried out in all universities
and contributes to the improvement of educational content and methods.5 Activities may beeither formal and systematic, provided by the university, or peer-to-peer, such as veteran faculty
members instructing or providing informal mentoring for new faculty members. Universities may
be more attractive if faculty development is both active and effective.6 However, a survey on
faculty development in nursing colleges by the Chiba University Graduate Center for Nursing
Practice and Research Guidance found that only 6.8% of faculty development training wasaimed specifically at new faculty members. More than half of BSN programs (62.8%) reported
that they considered training specific to new faculty members was inadequate, and only a few
organizations were providing faculty development opportunities for newly appointed nursing
faculty members. This suggests that there are not enough opportunities for newly appointed
nursing faculty members to develop their teaching skills.7
We can also infer that there are constraints that hinder the professional development of newly
appointed nursing faculty members. These may include miscellaneous roles and duties. Clinicalpractice guidance consumes most of the time and workloads of those faculty members. Direct
instruction by nursing faculty members is imperative to make clinical practice effective, but it
impedes long-term and off-campus training for faculty.8
It therefore seems likely that there are insufficient opportunities for newly appointed nursing
faculty members to systematically learn pedagogy. It may be helpful to provide timesaving
learning opportunities for these faculty members to improve the quality of their teaching.
Online education may be a suitable way to meet these needs. This may be either synchronousor asynchronous. Both types can be accessed from any location with a network environment.
Asynchronous online education allows learners to view and listen at their own pace, which canbe an advantage for time-constrained learners. The effectiveness of online learning has beenreported in a variety of disciplines.9-11
We therefore developed an online learning program, the Learning Program for New Faculty
Members and examined its effectiveness.

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Online program for new faculty

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Research objective
This study was a pre-test/post-test interventional design with a control group. The purpose was
to examine the effect of attending an online learning program on the acquisition of knowledge
about educational practice among newly appointed nursing faculty members.
Study participants
All BSN programs in Japan listed in the Nursing School Handbook were invited to participate
in this study.12 Assistant professors or research associates with less than 5 years of teachingexperience in BSN programs were selected as research participants by program administrators.
Faculty members who had previously participated in three particular official or other programs(listed in Table 1) were excluded because the content of our program overlapped with theseother programs.
Table 1

Programs whose participants were excluded from the study

The Nursing Teacher Training Course at the Center for Nursing Training and Research, Ministryof Health, Labor and Welfare
The Future Nurse Faculty Program at St. Luke’s International University Graduate School
The Future Faculty Program at the University of Tokyo Graduate School; and “Interactive Teaching”

Structure of the Learning Program for New Faculty Members
The intervention program used in this study was an excerpt from a course produced under
the supervision of the University of Tokyo’s Center for Interdisciplinary Education and Research,and released free of charge on “gacco”, a Japanese Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
platform. Associate Professor Kurita, the creator of the original course, gave permission for us
to name this course the Learning Program for New Faculty Members in this study. At the timeof this research study, the course was no longer available on “gacco”, but could be viewed
free of charge at the University of Tokyo Faculty Development site (https://www.utokyofd.com).
The program contains eight sections: 1) What is interactive teaching, 2) Techniques of active
learning, 3) Science of learning, 4) Design a 90-minute class, 5) Writing a more useful syllabus,
6) Evaluations to motivate learning, 7) Career path: being a faculty member, and 8) Career path:using a portfolio. Each section contains (1) a “knowledge session” to teach knowledge related
to education, (2) a “skill session” to teach communication skills other than teaching methods,
such as how to talk to others and how to relax, and (3) a “story session” responding to learners’
requests, in which faculty members from the University of Tokyo were interviewed about various
issues related to education and the educational methods they used. In this study, three “knowledge
sessions”, “Science of learning” (Week 3), “Design a 90-minute class” (Week 4), and “Writinga more useful syllabus” (Week 5), were required, and the other sections were optional. Table 2
shows all sections and sessions of the Learning Program for New Faculty Members.
The Council of Japanese Nursing Colleges conducted a study on the formulation and evaluation of education standards in graduate schools of nursing. It suggested the abilities requiredof nursing faculty members (assistant professors and research associates). These included “theability to look at education in general”, especially “the ability to understand the characteristics
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Nahoko Nakagawa and Toyoaki Yamauchi

Table 2

Sections and sessions of the Learning Program for New Faculty Members(Week1)
Knowledge session
Intro: What is interactive teaching? “Get to know active learning”
Active learning
Current active learning
Choosing the method of active learning
Applying the method of active learning
Discussion: self-introduction
Skill session
Philosophy of skills: Significance is invisible
Story session
Active learning for the scientific field
Learning by cases: Learning by the case method at business school(Week 2)
Knowledge session
Techniques of active Learning
Think–pair–share
Jigsaw method
Poster tour
Peer interaction
Discussion: Group work what if…
Skill session
Case study: Making space
Story session
Facilitate students’ discussion
Cooperative learning, making high school lessons interactive(Week 3)Knowledge session
Science of learning
Motivation 1
Motivation 2
Road to Master
Practice and feedback
Discussion: Categorizing into partial skills
Skill session
Case study: Speak to communicate
Story session
Nutrition topic: Importance of creating step by step learning
Project-based learning to passion-based learning

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Online program for new faculty(Week 4)
Knowledge session
Design a 90-minute class
Definition of class design and its model 1
Definition of class design and its model 2
Basics of class components
Using design sheets
Discussion: Want to have a class like this…
Skill session
Interaction 1: Self icebreaker
Story session
Seeing by eyes and listening by ears English class: Use of audiovisual resources
Comparison of teaching and learning, and what an instructor can do(Week 5)Knowledge session
Writing a more useful syllabus
More on the role of the syllabus
Setting targets and purpose
Designing class schedules
Making class components visible
Discussion: Setting targets and purpose
Skill session
Interaction 2: Inducing reactions
Story session
Comparison of college education and students in Japan and Germany
Making a classroom with students: Challenge for project-based learning(Week 6)
Knowledge session
Evaluations to motivate learning
Purpose of evaluation
How to set evaluations
Discussion: Let’s make rubrics
Skill session
Application: Q&As (1)Story session
Targeting “fun education” as a driving force for researching
Organizational change and training by communication(Week 7)Knowledge session
Career path: Being a faculty member
Higher education in Japan
An ideal college faculty
A role model for college faculty
Discussion: Balance between education and research
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Nahoko Nakagawa and Toyoaki Yamauchi

Skill session
Application: Q&As (2)Story session
Future college? What is required to be a member of college faculty?
Utilizing skits in the classroom(Week 8)Knowledge session
Career path: Using a portfolio
Structuring an academic portfolio
Meaning of making a Structured Academic Portfolio (SAP) chart
Making SAP chart 1-education
Making SAP chart 2-research
Making SAP chart 3-service and compilation
Skill session
Conclusion: Do not be afraid to make mistakes
Story session
Think about future college faculty in the historical context of the universityof teaching styles appropriate for educational purposes” and “the ability to understand basic
knowledge required for lesson planning”.13 Feldman investigated the factors that influence learning
outcomes in university teachers’ classes and found that “teacher preparation and class design”
and “teaching according to class objectives” influenced learning outcomes.14 These two studies
suggest that these competencies and factors are essential for newly appointed nursing faculty
members. The University of Tokyo’s Center for Integrated Research on Universities gave us
permission to use the Learning Program for New Faculty Members. The program was available
to the research participants at any time and any place they wanted, throughout the intervention
period. They were allowed to view the lectures in any order. They could also split a single pieceof content over several viewing sessions.
Data collection
Preliminary questionnaire survey. Before the study, we conducted an anonymous
self-administered questionnaire on knowledge of educational practices. We mailed a research
explanation form and consent form with a self-addressed stamped envelope to presidents ordeans of all BSN programs listed in the Nursing School Handbook.10 We then mailed research
explanation forms, research participation consent forms, and return envelopes to the assistantprofessors and research associates with 5 years or less of university teaching experience who
agreed to cooperate, as reported by the presidents or deans. The study materials were distributed
to potential participants by their president or dean.
The pre-test questionnaire and return envelopes were mailed directly to all newly appointed
nursing faculty members who returned the consent form. The pre-test was conducted from
September to November 2017. This asked the participants about their readiness for education,
personal attributes, and willingness to participate in peer support group sessions. Readiness items
were extracted from the content of the Learning Program for New Faculty Members. They
included Item 1 Student Understanding and Support, Item 2 Syllabus and Class Design, Item 3
Conducting Class, Item 4 Understanding of Educational Theories, and free space for thoughts
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Online program for new facultyand questions about extramural support and lectures, exercises, and clinical practice teaching. The
content of the questionnaire is shown in Table 3. Personal attributes included sex, age group,
final degree, years of clinical experience, years of educational experience on BSN programs
and/or at diploma nursing institutions, and average number of times attending on- and/or offcampus training. These attributes are considered to influence educational competencies.15,16 The
participants were divided into intervention and control groups based on their personal attributes.
The participants in the control group were frequency matched to those in the intervention groupby sex, age, final degree, clinical experience, and academic experience.
Intervention methods. An e-mail was sent to the intervention group inviting them to attend
the Learning Program for New Faculty Members. Members of the control group were informedthat they were allocated to the control group and would be given an opportunity to attend theTable 3

Questionnaire items

Item 1 Student Understanding and Support
Enabling creative thought for students during lectures
Checking students’ comprehension during lectures
Able to explain and define “value”, “forecast” and “environment”, which are the keys tomaintaining student motivation
Grasping the students’ readiness before lectures
Able to explain the main and supporting methods for mastering nursing techniques.
Able to explain effective practices and feedback for nursing techniques.
Item 2 Syllabus and Class Design
Able to explain and define the role and definition of the syllabus
Able to set the goals and targets while making the syllabus
Able to design an effective schedule while making the syllabus
Able to write an evaluation method properly on the syllabus
Able to define an applicable method for a graphic syllabus
Able to explain the 90-minute class design
Able to design a class with a class design sheet
Able to make a lesson plan for every lecture
Item 3 Conducting ClassA meeting is held with all specialized faculty before the lecture to produce lesson
Conduct a simulated lesson for lectures before the actual lesson
Conduct a tools and devices operational check for lectures
A meeting is held with all specialized faculty after the lecture
A meeting is held after the lecture to prepare the next lecture
Item 4 Understanding of Educational Theories
Able to explain lesson design using the Analysis Design Development Implementation Evaluation (ADDIE) model
Able to explain the basic lesson components based on Gagne’s 9 events of instruction
4: fit3: almost fit
2: not very fit
1: not fit

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Learning Program for New Faculty Members after the post-test survey.
Post-test. The post-test consisted of the same content as the pre-test questionnaire for bothgroups, excluding information about personal attributes. It was conducted from March to May
2018. An invitation to attend the Learning Program for New Faculty Members was sent to thecontrol group via personal e-mail in June 2018. We did not confirm whether the participantsin the intervention group had taken the program before the post-test. However, we explained tothem that we would like them to complete the post-test after taking the program.
Data analysis
Descriptive statistics for all variables were collected for all participants and for the intervention
and control groups overall. To determine the effectiveness of the intervention, we used Student’s
t test to compare post-test results between the intervention and control groups for four items:“Student Understanding and Support”, “Syllabus and Class Design”, “Conducting Class”, and“Understanding of Educational Theories”. The pre-test and post-test data were both anonymized.
Ethical considerations
This study was conducted with the approval of the Bioethics Review Committee of the Nagoya
University Graduate School of Medicine (approval no. 17–132).

RESULTS
Analysis target and treatment of missing values
In total, 74 (29.4%) of the 252 BSN programs agreed to cooperate. A pre-test questionnaire
was mailed to 99 participants who returned the consent form, and all 99 participants returned thequestionnaire. All but two potential participants completed the personal attributes section (valid
response rate: 96.0%). A total of 54 (55.7%) were allocated to the intervention group, and theremaining 43 (44.3%) to the control group. Of the 97 participants, 51 (20 in the intervention
group and 31 in the control group) who returned the post-test questionnaire were included in
the final analyses.
Comparing demographic information with the results of interventions
Attributes of the analysis participants. A summary of the personal attributes of theintervention and control groups is shown in Table 4. The participants were 22 men (22.7%) and75 women (77.3%). The biggest group comprised participants in their 30s (49.5%), followed bythose in their 40s (29.9%). More than three-quarters held master’s degrees (75.3%).
Table 4 shows the average length of clinical and academic experience, the number of times
participating in faculty development activities, and the number of times participating in off-campus
training in the intervention and control groups.
Group comparison of factors influencing the acquisition of knowledge about educational
practices. The participants were matched by sex, age group, educational background, years ofeducational experience at university, and years of clinical experience before being allocated tothe intervention or control groups. There were therefore no differences between groups for thesefactors. There were also no statistically significant differences in other attributes between the twogroups (the number of faculty development courses, p = 0.70, and the number of extramuraltraining courses, p = 0.44) (Table 4).
Comparison of knowledge about educational practice after attending the Learning Program for New Faculty Members. As shown in Tables 5 to 7, there were significant differences
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Online program for new faculty

Table 4Comparison of intervention group and control group (mean ± standard deviation)

Age, sex and educational
background

Intervention group(n = 54)

Control group(n = 43)

n

%

n

%

4

7.4

3

7.0

P value

χ2

0.58

2.342

0.54

0.342

0.65

1.414

Age
20s
30s

27

50.0

21

48.8

40s

18

33.3

11

25.6

50s

5

9.3

8

18.6

Male

11

20.4

11

25.6

Female

43

79.6

32

74.4

Bachelor’s

12

22.2

6

14.0

Master’s

39

72.2

34

79.0

Doctoral

3

5.6

3

7.0

Sex

Highest degree

Teaching and training experience

Intervention group(n = 54)

Control group(n = 43)

P valuet-valueYears of university teachingexperience

2.01 ± 1.09

2.47 ± 1.41

0.06

1.903

Years of vocational school
teaching experience

2.85 ± 1.82

5.80 ± 2.71

0.09

1.712

Years of clinical experience

9.43 ± 6.09

10.8 ± 6.64

0.14

1.488

Frequency of faculty development participation (number oftimes per year)

5.70 ± 3.94

5.04 ± 3.78

0.70

0.386

Frequency of off-campus
training session participation(number of times per year)

3.65 ± 3.37

3.36 ± 4.05

0.44

0.775

Table 5Pre- and post-intervention comparison of the intervention group (mean ± standard deviation)

Items

Pre-intervention(n = 54)

Post-intervention(n = 20)

P valuet-value

15.19 ± 4.21

23.55 ± 2.48

< 0.01

2.897

18.83 ± 6.47

28.20 ± 5.22

< 0.01

2.729

12.90 ± 3.81

15.65 ± 2.94

0.05

2.975

2.54 ± 1.01

5.40 ± 2.06

< 0.01

2.832

Item 1Student Understanding and Support
Item 2
Syllabus and Class Design
Item 3
Conducting Class
Item 4
Understanding of Educational
Theories
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Table 6Pre- and post-intervention comparison of the control group (mean ± standard deviation)

Items

Pre-intervention(n = 43)

Post-intervention(n = 31)

P valuet-value

16.81 ± 3.61

16.90 ± 3.51

0.69

0.400

19.87 ± 5.43

22.17 ± 5.53

0.17

1.386

14.21 ± 3.75

14.50 ± 3.96

0.96

0.038

2.51 ± 1.26

2.97 ± 1.50

0.18

1.341

Item 1Student Understanding and Support
Item 2
Syllabus and Class Design
Item 3
Conducting Class
Item 4
Understanding of Educational
Theories

Table 7Pre-and post-intervention comparison of the intervention and control groups(mean ± standard deviation)

Pre-intervention items

Intervention group(n = 54)

Control group(n = 43)

P valuet-value

15.19 ± 4.21

16.81 ± 3.61

0.05

1.967

18.83 ± 6.47

19.87 ± 5.43

0.36

0.902

12.90 ± 3.81

14.21 ± 3.75

0.13

1.499

2.54 ± 1.01

2.51 ± 1.26

0.92

0.097

Intervention group(n = 20)

Control group(n = 31)

P valuet-value

23.55 ± 2.48

16.90 ± 3.51

< 0.01

2.939

28.20 ± 5.22

22.17 ± 5.53

< 0.01

2.765

15.65 ± 2.94

14.50 ± 3.96

0.27

1.108

5.40 ± 2.06

2.97 ± 1.50

< 0.01

3.265

Item 1Student Understanding and Support
Item 2
Syllabus and Class Design
Item 3
Conducting Class
Item 4
Understanding of Educational
Theories
Post-intervention items
Item 1Student Understanding and Support
Item 2
Syllabus and Class Design
Item 3
Conducting Class
Item 4
Understanding of Educational
Theoriesin three items of knowledge on educational practice, “Student Understanding and Support” (p< 0.01), “Syllabus and Class Design” (p < 0.01), and “Understanding of Educational Theories”(p < 0.01), between the intervention and control groups at the post-test. However, there was no
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statistically significant difference in “Conducting Class” (p = 0.27).
The open-ended section of the pre-test questionnaire contained several comments, such as “I
am groping around without knowing how to plan lectures and labs, and I am not sure if thisis a good idea” and “It takes me until midnight to plan classes because I do not know how
to plan lectures and labs”. In the post-test questionnaires, many of the participants stated thatthey wished they had known earlier about existing learning tools, such as the Learning Program
for New Faculty Members. They reported now having a concrete understanding of how to planclasses, that they would like to have more opportunities to learn in this way, and that they hadlearned a lot. Many participants also said that they wanted to incorporate what they learned in
the e-learning program into their own classes.

DISCUSSION
This study had some limitations that should be considered when interpreting the findings.
First, it did not address the individual needs of newly appointed nursing faculty members. In
the future, it is desirable to identify specific needs and problems of newly appointed nursing
faculty members and develop research and educational programs that focus on these. Second,the Learning Program for New Faculty Members used in this study was open to the public andcould be viewed by anyone. Cross-contamination could therefore threaten the study’s internal
validity. We excluded potential participants who had already taken the Learning Program for New
Faculty Members or a similar program, but it was not possible to prohibit the control group fromaccessing the program during the study period. Last, participation in this study was voluntary.
It is therefore possible that only nursing faculty members with a high level of interest in basic
nursing education participated. The results may therefore not be generalizable to newly appointed
nursing faculty members with lower levels of interest in basic education.
Effects of the online Learning Program for New Faculty Members on the acquisition of knowledge
about educational practices
This study examined the effects of taking the online Learning Program for New Faculty
Members on the acquisition of knowledge about educational practices. Overall, the results indicatethat the program was effective in enabling new faculty members to acquire knowledge about
educational practice.
Item 1 in Table 3, “Student Understanding and Support”, is essential knowledge in educational
practice.17 In nursing science, teachers’ understanding of students is relevant to nurses’ understanding of patients.18 Yamashita stated that in teaching nursing practice, understanding students’behaviors and experiences will lead to intentional involvement, which will effectively support
students in achieving their practice goals.19 It is therefore important for newly appointed nursing
faculty members to know about student understanding and support to help their students to learn
effectively and understand what they are learning.
Item 2 in Table 3, “Syllabus and Class Design”, was designed to help newly appointed nursing faculty members to learn methods of designing classes. The free descriptions in the pre-test
survey suggested that the research participants had few opportunities to learn how to design a
90-minute class. They often spent a considerable amount of time designing their classes, butthey were not confident about the quality, making comments like, “I am not sure whether thisis good enough”.
The post-test questionnaires showed that the participants felt that they had learned a lot bysystematically and practically learning the significance of syllabi, how to create them, what to
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keep in mind when creating them, and how to design classes. They planned to make use of thislearning in their lectures and labs. A study by Osawa on the learning needs of nursing research
associates found that the most commonly selected categories in the survey were “knowledge
and skills required to develop classes for each type of class”, “necessary to develop classes thatenhance student learning”, and “knowledge and skills category”.20
Imoto and Kaneko studied nursing teachers’ competencies and workplace support by yearsof experience and found that new nursing teachers felt deficient in educational practice skills,
communication skills, and management skills, of the five competencies required of nursing
teachers.21 Our results are consistent with these previous studies.
The content of the Learning Program for New Faculty Members therefore meets the learningneeds of newly appointed nursing faculty. Even those working outside universities found it helpful
to understand the necessity, use, and basic content of a comprehensive syllabus to enable themto design appropriate classes. The participants also found it helpful to have specific methods,
procedures, and design sheets for designing a 90-minute class.
Item 4 in Table 3 was about understanding educational theory and its significance. Smith
and Liehr stated that “every discipline has its own focus that directs research in the field,
distinguishes it from other disciplines, and develops knowledge”.22 Educational theories taught
in the Learning Program for New Faculty Members can help newly appointed nursing faculty
members to design and self-evaluate classes. This is relevant to using nursing theory to reflect
personal nursing practice. We consider that the newly appointed nursing faculty members inthis study develop by recognizing that the program provides value because its contents can beunderstood and used in the future.
Responding to the constraints on newly appointed nursing faculty members
Newly appointed nursing faculty members had not participated in off-campus training very
often. This may reflect limitations on their time, or the constraints imposed by their workload.
The pre-test questionnaire showed that the average number of times participants attended offcampus training was 3.7, compared with 6.3 times for on-campus development. This shows that
off-campus training sessions, which are limited by location and date, are likely to be attended
on a one-off basis. However, participants only attended on-campus faculty development sessions
about once every 2 months. It may be difficult for newly appointed nursing faculty members
to participate in long-term, venue-based training because of time and space constraints. The
online Learning Program for New Faculty Members used in this study was therefore perhaps
particularly suitable for the study participants. In addition, approximately 80% (79.4%) of theparticipants were in their 30s or 40s. A survey showed that approximately 50% of this age
group use computers, and approximately 80% use smartphones.23 People in these age groups
are therefore accustomed to using digital devices to obtain information. The program used inthis study can be viewed on both computers and smartphones. No research was found on theinternet environment of each university or newly appointed nursing faculty members. However,it seems likely that the participants were well prepared for the course, including the use of theinternet environment and digital devices. Scollin noted that “it is important to be able to use
online resources and to receive support for connection and stress-free use”.24 In this study, theparticipants were given procedural instructions on how to connect and use the educational program
along with its URL before the survey. The program was also easy to use because participants
only had to click on the content they wished to view. There were therefore unlikely to be any
major difficulties related to ease of use. In response to the spread of the internet and the diversityof society, educational methods are changing in various ways, and an increasing number ofuniversities are allowing students to obtain degrees by taking courses online. The effectiveness
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Online program for new facultyof online education has also been examined in nursing colleges.25 It therefore seems likely thatonline learning programs are extremely suitable for newly appointed nursing faculty memberswith high time and space constraints.
Impact on educational practice ability of newly appointed nursing faculty members
There was no statistically significant difference between the intervention group and the control
group in implementation of lectures and exercises after the intervention. According to Natsume
et al, teaching skills need refinement through trial and error in actual educational activities.15
This skill may therefore not be acquired solely through online sessions. It is expected that
repeated lecture and lab practices following this program will improve participants’ competency
and confidence in this area.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrated the effectiveness of an online learning program to enable newly
appointed nursing faculty members to acquire knowledge on educational practice. The programused in this study, the Learning Program for New Faculty Members, was effective in supportingknowledge acquisition on “Student Understanding and Support”, “Syllabus and Class Design”,
and “Understanding of Educational Theories”. However, it was less effective on “Conducting
Class”. The online course can be taken anytime and anywhere, enabling it to overcome timeand space constraints. In the future, researchers should create training programs on nursing thatcan be tailored to meet individual learning needs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Kayoko Kurita of the Universityof Tokyo’s Center for General Education Research for agreeing to allow us to use her book“Interactive Teaching: Let’s End the Listening-only Class” in conducting this study. We also thankMelissa Leffler, MBA, from Edanz (https://jp.edanz.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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