Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Mary Lynn Vogel
Keywords
Aurora University, baccalaureate nursing, course design, distance learning, faculty preparedness, formative committee, instructional design, nursing education, online courses, pilot programs, program development, School of Nursing, summative committee, web-based learning, web-authoring software
Abstract
The problem was that several students in the baccalaureate nursing program at Aurora University (AU) experienced problems fitting required courses into their schedules. These students requested an alternative to class attendance in the course, Nursing Care of Person with Acute Health Problems (NUR 380). The purpose of this practicum was to develop an online version of NUR 380 for selected students enrolled in the nursing program at AU. Two research questions for this study were (a) what is the best design for the online course? And (b) can this method of delivery be partially integrated into the traditional classroom?
.Six procedures were conducted in this study. These included data collection, formation and utilization of the formative committee, formation and utilization of the summative committee, establishment and validation of the criteria for an effective online course, validation of the design of the online course, and development of the online course. The results of the study were the establishment of criteria for the development of the online course, and design of the course in an online version.
Recommendations were that the course be (a) delivered as a pilot, (b) integrated with the traditional classroom version, ( c) facilitated by the instructor assigned to the traditional course, and (d) evaluated after the pilot as a regular offering by the School of Nursing. Further recommendations were that the University consider adopting a Web-authoring software program for greater usability and that an assessment be conducted to determine faculty preparedness to facilitate online courses.