Validation of critical thinking skills in online responses

Although nursing accreditation bodies have recognized critical thinking as a significant outcome for graduates at the baccalaureate and master's levels, no consensus exists on its definition and measurements. In addition, schools of nursing that are completely online do not agree on how to evaluate critical thinking in online responses. This study explains the development of a 10-item tool that uses a Likert scale to evaluate critical thinking skills in students' online responses in three master's-level courses in a nursing school in the midwestern United States. The developed tool has adequate reliability coefficients, as measured by Pearson's r and Cronbach's alpha. The critical thinking skills of the tested students were adequate in the areas of analysis and synthesis but needed improvement in the evaluation domain.