Inclusion criteria

Concept

This study will review research discussing the IoT platform among the scientific technologies used in undergraduate nursing curriculums. For this study, intervention is technology and IoT. Technology includes computing methodologies of medical subject headings (MeSH), digital technology, web-based, online-based, non-face-to-face, network communication, mobile, smartphone and edutech. IoT includes the MeSH term IoT, massively multiplayer online role-playing game, cloud, intelligence, machine and virtual reality. Moreover, the platform was set as the outcome, which includes the virtual learning environment, e-learning environment, e-learning platform, electronic education platform, electronic educational platform, electronic learning environment, electronic learning platform and virtual learning.

In analysing IoT platform technologies, new platform architectures, including perception equipment, access unit, access network, middleware and application,25 will be analysed first. Then, it will analyse the platform types26 and the architectures proposed as next-generation programming platforms—client system, data server and judge server—by dividing them into architectures for learners and those for teachers.27 The concept of this study can be further refined with natural language search.

Context

This review will include the educational setting of an undergraduate nursing programme and exclude graduate, nursing aide and maternity nurse courses and nurse training institutions. Eligible research is not limited to geographical limitations.

Types of sources

This scoping review will consider quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods study designs for inclusion. In addition, systematic reviews and text and opinion papers will be considered for inclusion in the proposed scoping review. Specifically, this review will consider experimental and quasi-experimental designs, including randomised controlled trials, non-randomised controlled trials, and prestudy and poststudy and discontinued time-series studies. In addition, analytical observational studies, including prospective and retrospective cohort studies, case–control studies and analytical cross-sectional studies, will also be considered. The design of descriptive observational studies, including case series, individual case reports and descriptive cross-sectional studies, will be considered for inclusion. Qualitative research will include phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, qualitative explanations, behavioural studies and feminist studies, not limited to previously described studies. Moreover, systematic reviews that satisfy the inclusion criteria based on the research question and text and opinion papers related to the research objective or question will also be included in this scoping review.

Search strategy

The search strategy will identify published literature in various databases and related journals. A preliminary search was performed on PubMed (NCBI) to determine initial search terms. This search used keywords and subject titles found in the list records of related articles to formulate a comprehensive search strategy (see online supplemental appendix I: Search strategy). As this review aims to capture the various terms of IoT or technology, the search was extensive. In addition, to minimise cases where valuable research results could be missed, the scope was limited to Text Word. This limitation may be changed to Title/Abstract later if the scope is deemed too broad. Moreover, the full-text articles included in the final selection will be screened for further study.

This review’s search strategy was developed and reviewed by the information search experts of Connected-U.26 Further research will be done using the Embase (Elsevier), Cochrane Library and Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL) databases. Embase and CINAHL were specifically chosen as the former is the most widely used database for systematic reviews, and the latter has the most comprehensive source of nursing journals. A preliminary search was completed to find initial search terms, and then a full-search strategy was developed. Search results yielded from PubMed (NCBI) were screened to ensure articles were peer-reviewed, published in English from January 1999 to August 2021, and relevant to developing, applying and evaluating IoT platforms at educational institutions for students in undergraduate nursing programmes. According to the preliminary search, IoT first emerged as a concept in 1990.26 However, the Davos Forum forecasted the emergence of IoT in 20151; thus, the search period may be changed after 2015 based on the amount of searched literature. Once the protocol has been published, the formal data collection for the scoping review will commence and will include more recent publications.

Study/source of evidence selection

All identified literature resulting from the search will be encoded to EndNote V.20.0 (Clarivate Analytics, Pennsylvania, USA), and duplicates will be removed. Then, the titles and abstracts will be screened against the inclusion criteria by one reviewer with consultation from the research team as needed. The full texts of the relevant studies will be retrieved and screened to ensure that the population, concept, and context adhere to the inclusion criteria. Finally, a full-text review of all selected articles will be reviewed against the inclusion criteria by one reviewer. One reviewer will examine the full-text articles following the narrow and well-defined’ inclusion criteria. Any ambiguities at this stage will be resolved through discussion with other research team members, and reasons for the exclusion of full-text studies will be reported in the final scoping review report. Furthermore, the search results will be fully detailed in the final report with a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram.28

Data extraction

Data will be extracted from the studies included in the review using a data extraction tool developed by the reviewers (see online supplemental appendix II: Data extraction treatment). The extracted data will include details on the study type, population, setting, objectives, research questions and terminology/descriptions used, including provided definitions, purposes and principles, IoT platform type, IoT platform function and IoT platform technology as relevant to the objective of this scoping review. Specifically, the qualitative data will be analysed using a modified grounded theory approach, informing a working definition of the IoT platform and related terms. The Modified Ground Theory, which does not focus on the concept derivation but recognises the ‘structural process’ through context, process and condition consequence matrix,29 is considered an appropriate method for analysing qualitative data from this study.

The data extraction tool may be modified according to the information that emerges as relevant during the review, and such amendments will be detailed in the full review. In case of missing or needing additional data, the authors of the selected articles may be contacted as needed.

Data analysis and synthesis

Full-scale data analysis will be carried out to examine the articles according to the review questions. The search results will be presented in tables based on the data extraction tool and include information on the study type, population, setting, objectives, research questions and terminology/conceptualisations used in the relevant papers. These results will also be compiled into a working definition of the IoT platform related to undergraduate nursing students. Descriptive, theoretical, methodological and resulting data will be synthesised in tabular form. Results regarding IoT platform barriers and facilitation factors involving disintermediation used by researchers will be presented through a narrative synthesis.

Ethics and dissemination

This study was exempted from ethical review by the Institutional Review Board of Nambu University, South Korea (1041475-2021 HR-030). Study results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals.

Discussion

The purpose of this scoping review is to characterise the literature related to IoT platforms used in undergraduate nursing education. Doing so is critical in an era where nursing educators must strengthen future nurses in responding to global, national and local health challenges. We believe that the study’s results will provide helpful information to educators who develop nurses’ theoretical knowledge, clinical nursing educators who equip nurses with practical skills and university undergraduate educators who design and operate the curricula for future nurses. This scoping review is limited by not including a planned quality assessment of the records as recommended by the methodological framework; thus, the recommendations may impede implementation. Moreover, it can often be difficult to synthesise results from different sources of information. The advantages of this scoping review include adopting a systematic approach, adherence to rigorous and accepted methodological frameworks, and the inclusion of multiple sources of information. The screening team is working closely with nursing educators with extensive experience in nursing education, IoT platform experts and data searchers.