| CASN Graduate Education By Distance | | | Canadian universities are responding to the needs of nurses for graduate level courses and programs using distance strategies. Several Canadian universities enable students to complete their Master's degree entirely by distance. Most masters and at least three doctoral programs currently offer some distance options to students.
In some distance programs, individual students may learn from home. In others, students may be required to travel to a common site located far from the hosting university. In whatever way distance programs are arranged, Canadian universities are striving to balance flexible delivery methods with a challenging academic program.
Nurses choose to obtain education by distance for a variety of reasons. Nurses who live in rural settings may prefer to avoid the inconvenience and cost of frequent travel to a university. Those who juggle the demands of family, work and school may prefer the flexibility. Sometimes nurses have the need to study in a specific language. Some nurses choose to study by distance when they move away from the university where they have begun graduate studies and cannot find the same type of program at a local university. The strategies used in distance education courses must suit the type of course, learning objectives and available resources. Common strategies used in graduate programs are correspondence, computer-based, teleconference, video-conference and faculty visits.
Correspondence involves sending materials, primarily books, audio- and video-tapes, through the mail. In Computer-basedi] programs, students may obtain information from storage sites on the Internet, from a floppy disk or a compact disk to access printed, audio and video materials. Communication between teachers and students may be enhanced through the use of group or individual electronic mail (e-mail, or list serves) or chat groups. University libraries and data bases can be accessed through the Internet. Articles are then faxed, or sent to the student by mail, sometimes incurring an additional cost. Challenges for the university include assisting faculty and students to become comfortable and skilled in the use of technology, and finding sufficient funds to cover the costs of equipment. In video-conferences, students can not only talk with one another using telephone technology as if they were in a teleconference, but they can see each other speak through the use of a video screen. Faculty visits to individuals or to groups of students are used by some universities to enhance their distance programs. Personal contact may decrease students' feelings of isolation and meet the need for communication. Some universities have a newsletter or use telephone tutors to attain the same objectives. Refer to the CASN list of members and program offerings, CASN Education Program Database for further information.
Reference: Canadian Nurses Association, "Education for Canadian Registered Nurses Using Distance Strategies", 1999. | | |
|
|
| |