Effect of involvement and motivation on self-learning: Evaluating a mobile e-learning program for nurses caring for women with gynecologic cancer

Aim: To evaluate a mobile e-learning program for nurses caring for women with gynecologic cancer and explore the effect of personal involvement and motivation on self-learning. Background: Cancer care has gradually come to be regarded as chronic disease management. In this context, nurses require health education skills to impart cancer-related knowledge and teach patients the relevant practices to enhance their adaptation to the illness. Thus, nurses would benefit from a mobile program to facilitate learning educational skills efficiently as it allows learners to learn at their own pace and convenience. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. A mobile e-learning program with interactive tasks was designed to function as supplementary education for nurses. The program comprised four topics including exercise, illness representations based on the Common Sense Model, caring principles associated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy in caring for women with gynecologic cancer. In total, 84 purposively sampled nurses completed the program successfully. Data were collected via structured questionnaire from March to August 2021. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to examine the proposed hypotheses regarding the effects of involvement and motivation on learning outcomes. Results: The results showed that cognitive involvement had significant effects on learning motivation. However, no significant effects were found for affective involvement. Furthermore, cognitive involvement was indirectly associated with learning effects via motivational components. The strongest associations between motivational factors and learning effects were found for perceived attention, followed by perceived relevance. Conclusions: The results suggest that motivation is a proximal influencing factor for learning effects. However, the effects of perceived attention and relevance were stronger than those of perceived confidence and satisfaction. Furthermore, the authors identified the different aspects of involvement and found that cognitive involvement had significant effects on learning motivation, while no effects were observed for affective involvement.