Educators/Students -Please submit your opinion

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Hello,

I am working on a research paper regarding online education. Could you please give your opinion from the educators point of view. I have interviewed several students that have completed nursing courses online. It appears that most nurses I interveiwed were generally satisfied with their online education. Many of them were benefited and able to advance in their specialty areas. Then there are some that lacked the commitment and discipline required to complete an online program.

I now need the perspective of an educator.

Please keep in mind...my thesis questions are:

- How do you feel about online nursing education?

- Can distant learning provide a quality education? Why do you think so?

- How can instructors make learning effective? (if you have taught online courses)

Students please chime in to if you have something to add.

Thank you.

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Please help me out...need some opinions. I have some scholar sources needs some educators input.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I did my master's online, with the field work at a local community college under contract with my university.

I have been a night shifter for at least 20 years, so online allowed me to do the work around the demands of my life: widowed mom, homeschooling, mult. Scout troops, band, soccer, little league, etc. I work at night, and study best at night. Most of my postings were between 2 and 5 AM. Online worked extremely well for me. I still had to read stacks of text books, respond and discuss them with my classmates (the delay in responses allowed for much better thought out responses, rather than off the cuff reactions). Some classes had notes by the instructor posted, about readings or whatever they thought important. Having time to think about the reading, thoughtfully post, thoroughly digest the instructor's notes gave a higher quality experience than many on-site classes I've taken. There were no short cuts, or "gimmes" because we were online, if anything it was tougher.

We had group projects, group papers, individual papers, concept maps, research to do, got sent to sites all over the web and world, online timed quizzes (no time to look up much), open book quizzes, and scheduled tele conferences. Those had the instructor online live, and could use a mike to talk, or text in questions and get live (real time) answers.

I did my field work locally, then submitted all my writeups to my advisor online. Graduated, was hired to teach by the comm. college before that. Online worked extremely well for me, would not have an advanced degree otherwise.

Hope that helps :up:;)

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I think online is great option as a working adult.

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Specializes in Cardiac care/Ortho/LTC/Education/Psych.

I also have a nice experience with it. OK, can be very very frustrating especially because you have to figure it out yourself and then when you end up in some group with people that do not want to pull is like a nightmare. Some teachers are good some are so so as everywhere else. But , it is doable and rewarding . I am planing to go to site from now on because I think that working online classes can be much harder than in the class. It can provide very good experience .

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Specializes in Neuro Critical Care.

I did my BSN online and it worked great for me. I learned a lot and felt like I received a quality education.

Online education can be whatever the student wants it to be. If the student wants to learn a lot they will; if they don't want to learn a lot they won't. If you are just looking for some more letters after your name then you really won't have the discipline to complete an online education.

I am a visual learner so I had to work a little harder to stay focused on the lessons and reading. It was a challenge to not have someone talking to me, but really they were talking to me through message boards on the computer. I think online education is a great way for nurses to continue their education. I do not believe that a new nurse will be able to complete their initial nursing education online and have an effective learning/clinical experience. That is just my opinion.

Nurses work many different shifts; hospitals never close. Having the convenience of 24/7 education is priceless in the nursing profession.

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Specializes in NICU.

I did an RN to BSN online program and loved it. I had to work full-time during this segment of my schooling and I also have a family to care for. I couldn't have done school at this point if I had to spend time in classes. The program I went to had instructors who were very responsive to students--through e-mail, postings, phone (most even said they could be called any time). I'm a pretty good self-learner and didn't have any problems.

One caveat I have is that it's not necessarily the best way to learn new material. I didn't feel the on-line classes I had during nursing school provided as much ability to learn as attending classes did. There is something about the in person give and take that is an important part of learning. I would be concerned about an online only (or even online focused) NS program; but for extended learning (such as an RN-BSN or Masters) program, it is ideal.

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