MSN - CNL coursework

nutella, MSN, RN · Jun 17, 2016

Hello to other nurses enrolled in their MSN!
I'm enrolled at Sacred Heart University's online CNL track and have taken 2 courses. I'm not thrilled with them, to say the least. Very asynchronous - basically each week has hundreds of pages of reading to do, and a lot of writing to do for discussion posts, projects, etc. The instructor "lectures" by sending out a word doc "concept summary". You really do not get to 'know' your professor at all.
I'm looking around for a different MSN program - would like to stay on the CNL track, but I'm looking for online courses that have different content - video-taped lectures, or even audio lectures. This type of course is just so heavy on assignments and reading - there's got to be a better way out there, isn't there?

I do not know how to bring to you - but graduate school usually means a lot of reading and writing. Distance might be even more than in person due to the program structure.

What is it that you expect? If you want true mastery of a topic, you need to get the knowledge. In my personal opinion, it depends a lot on your learning style and degree of motivation if you are able to hold up with graduate school.

If you work fulltime or more than 30 hours/week it can be hard to take more than one class at a time. There is no way around reading, which should include your textbook/coursebook, other articles and sources and so on.

Your main complaint appears to be the heavy assignments but I think that graduate school can easily mean to spend 15-18 hours/week or so per class with homework as projects, discussion, and papers take time....

Boomer MS, RN · Jun 17, 2016

I do not know how to bring to you - but graduate school usually means a lot of reading and writing. Distance might be even more than in person due to the program structure.
What is it that you expect? If you want true mastery of a topic, you need to get the knowledge. In my personal opinion, it depends a lot on your learning style and degree of motivation if you are able to hold up with graduate school.
If you work fulltime or more than 30 hours/week it can be hard to take more than one class at a time. There is no way around reading, which should include your textbook/coursebook, other articles and sources and so on.
Your main complaint appears to be the heavy assignments but I think that graduate school can easily mean to spend 15-18 hours/week or so per class with homework as projects, discussion, and papers take time....

Agree with the above. As we all started our first orientation day, we were told that the programs were rigorous, at least 40 hours a week with full time study. Everyone was advised not to work full time. There seem to be options now with so many online, but it is not a cake walk. It is doable with hard work and determination.

elkpark · Jun 17, 2016

Graduate programs (legitimate ones, anyway) involve a lot of reading and writing. What were you expecting?

LogCabinMom · Jun 18, 2016

Wow, thanks for all the supportive comments! So impressive.

I don't have a problem with the amount of reading and writing and have actually done quite well with this program, even with working approximately 50-65 hours/week. I do put in about 20 hrs on my coursework now.

What I have a problem with is basically teaching myself the entire curriculum. I have found I prefer a more traditional classroom environment, and was wondering if anyone knew of any programs out there that had any of this.

But thanks anyway.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Jun 27, 2016

I can understand OP's frustration. Although I have taught online courses, I found that I much prefer traditional environments for my own learning - because I highly value the real-time interactions with fellow students & the instructor. It also provided insight/exposure into a scholastic environment that gave me a much greater appreciation of the role of nursing research.

OP, have you investigated traditional graduate programs? Most of them are hybrid - mixing online & traditional instruction. Even traditional programs may be do-able. I worked full time and took full-time classes (= / > 12 hours) in my MSN program but the (public university health science center) school ensured that all onsite grad courses were scheduled on one specific day each week. The only exception was for the Saturday-only classes. It worked very well.