Online Courses More Prevalent, But are They for Everyone?

anet M. Phillips, Ph.D., RN, is smitten with e-learning—Web-based courses in which instructors and students communicate via the Internet and email, either completely or partially. She has experienced e-learning from both perspectives—as teacher and as student. The associate instructor at Indiana University School of Nursing earned her master’s degree from Ball State University.

“I was attracted to Ball State’s MSN program because it was entirely online,” Phillips said. “(The school) is not close to my home, and I liked the convenience of learning at home and not attending class, especially as a mature student. I enjoyed the convenience and the learning was superior to classroom learning. I am self-motivated and really enjoyed interacting with the faculty and students online.”

In spring 2009, Phillips will receive her doctorate from Indiana University, earned through a combination of face-to-face and online classes, including some video conferencing. She also has taught RN-to-BSN courses online for about five years.

“The students and I both love it,” she said. “Mature, self-motivated students are the most successful in online learning.”

Rachel Duran, assistant director of admissions of South University Online, agrees.

“You have to be motivated,” Duran said from her office in Phoenix. “I get calls from people who are not very directed, or don’t even have a computer, so I tell them that this program probably isn’t for them.”

South University has five brick-and-mortar or “ground campuses” in as many Southern states, and offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in nursing. The school began offering online courses in 2004. All their teachers receive 100 hours of instruction on how to teach online, are mentored through their first quarter of teaching, and have a cap of 15 to 20 students, Duran said.

The nursing shortage, budget cutbacks, employees with busy and sometimes irregular schedules, and a new generation of nurses who have grown up with the Internet are all reasons why e-leaning is here to stay, according to Diane M. Billings, EdD, RN, FAAN, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus at Indiana University School of Nursing.

“E-learning or online learning has become standard for the younger generation and is gaining in popularity with all age groups,” she said. “Eighty percent of all students have laptop computers that they bring to class and two-thirds have a cell phone that is Web-accessible.”

Billings, a pioneer in e-learning, is the editor of Conversations in E-Learning (Pohl Publishing, $28). She believes e-learning is a successful method of teaching and learning and may help ameliorate the nursing shortage.

A recent study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, found that Internet-based education is generally an effective teaching method, and that e-learning compares favorably with traditional instructional methods. Investigators reviewed more than 200 studies on Internet-based instruction and concluded that Internet-based instruction is associated with large learning gains when compared to no instruction.

The study was published in the Sept. 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Some nursing academics, however, are not as enthusiastic about online learning.

Sally Brosz Hardin Ph.D., RN, FAAN, finds it acceptable for students to obtain some of their course information or case studies online, but that’s the extent of it.

“We believe that in education, the most important thing is the relationship that a student has with a professor and the other students,” said Hardin, the dean and professor of the University of San Diego Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science. “That’s why we think it so vital to come to school and form those relationships.”

The school offers one of the country’s approximately 60 new doctorate of nursing practice programs. Nearly all these programs, except the one at Hahn, have some components of online instruction. Some are exclusively online.

Billings agrees that there are some situations in which a live teacher-student encounter is the best.

“Some people think there’s nothing you can’t learn online,” she said but most agree that, at least with pre-licensure students, “it’s better to be face-to-face when learning high-risk content or content that’s hard to learn, where you need repeated explanations.”

Some students and instructors make use of Web cams to “meet” when it is impossible to actually be in the same room, Billings added. Students also record their procedures via video and post them on a Web site for critique.

There are some disadvantages to online learning, Phillips admitted. It can be frustrating “if you are taking a course that you need to ask detailed questions about, like statistics, and you are working alone at home. You need to be assertive and creative in seeking help.”

Some instructors are still reluctant to use an online environment for testing, Billings added.

Many nurses have turned to earning their continuing education credits via Internet sites. It’s easy, economical and convenient, and a lot less expensive than going to a conference, although this kind of education doesn’t measure competence.

By E’Louise Ondash, RN, contributor

Source: Nurse Connect