Interface design and student satisfaction within online nursing education: A randomized controlled trial

The institutions of higher education, including schools and colleges of nursing, are investing time, money, and resources in online education, a new paradigm of learning via cyberspace, with little evidence-based research. This two-group, post test only randomized control trial was conducted to determine if an interface designed to generate an affective response would result in higher student satisfaction than one designed in a conventional interface. A total of 332 nursing students who met the study criteria were randomized to the learning module in one of two interface designs, affective or conventional. A total of 293 indicated informed consent and participated in the survey. The Questionnaire for User Satisfaction (QUIS) was used to assess student satisfaction with the interfaces. Means scores were calculated for the responses to the QUIS and analyzed using Independent Samples t-tests. The results of the study found no significant difference in the student satisfaction total scores for affective interface design (M = 7.81, SD = 1.15) and conventional interface design (M = 7.77, SD = 1.08); t (291) = .363, p = 0.358 (one-tailed).