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Validation of a Model for Faculty Teaching Online
Kay Hodson Carlton, EdD, RN, FAAN Marilyn Ryan, EdD, RN Nagia Ali, PhD, RN
The phenomena of online learning has raised significant questions concerning the role of faculty and changing pedagogies. A previous study was conducted focusing on nursing faculty perceptions of teaching online (Ryan, Hodson Carlton & Ali, 2001). Telephone interviews were conducted with 20 nursing faculty from eight Schools of Nursing in focus groups. Findings were reported through the development of a dimensional matrix: Faculty Redesigning Teaching Strategies for Online Learning. A questionnaire was developed based on study findings and dimensions of the matrix.
The purpose of this current study is to confirm the dimensions of the matrix through a national survey of nursing faculty teaching online courses.
The questionnaire designed by the researchers will be sent to the nursing faculty teaching total online courses. A cover letter explaining the study will accompany the questionnaire. Responses will remain anonymous and no names will be used on the report.
For this national survey Schools of Nursing have been identified as having distance learning programs from homepages on the WEB. An initial inquiry was sent to the Director/Dean of the school via E-mail to confirm that courses are delivered totally online and to identify faculty teaching online. After faculty are identified, questionnaires will be sent to the participants by mail. Each questionnaire will have a cover letter. No identification will be required.
The questionnaire has 60 questions with a response set of Disagree or Agree, and should take about 15-20 minutes to complete. A demographic data sheet will also be sent. This study addressed the NLN criteria: role needs of next generation faculty. Findings will provide information about the changing of faculty teaching online.
What is the Lived Experience of Nursing Faculty Who Teach Online?
Jennifer Couvillon, RN, MN, FNP, PhD (c)
The purpose of this study is to describe the lived experiences of nursing faculty members who teach online. As nursing schools increase the amount of technology that is incorporated into Bachelor of Science in nursing programs, it is imperative to understand the learning and teaching phenomenon that occurs. Nursing faculty must become familiar with the technology and instruct students on how to use it. Faculty must develop skills to teach online and update their skills as the technology changes. Teaching online may involve a different paradigm, one that nursing faculty members may not be familiar or comfortable with. This proposed project directly relates to NLN's research priority of education-based paradigms, strategies, and evaluation models for nursing. The lived experience of teaching nursing online includes teaching paradigms, practices, and strategies of online nursing education. The study may expand knowledge about teaching online as the data about faculty experiences are analyzed and communicated with the profession of nursing.
Summative Evaluation of Baccalaureate Students' Nurse Caring Behaviors
Joanne Duffy
Graduating students who can meet the challenges of current clinical practice environments not only ensures quality patient care, but, measures nursing program effectiveness. Using such evidence to continuously improve educational program performance is central to its success and an essential component of comprehensive outcomes assessment. The challenge of graduating caring professional nurses is a major component of professional nursing education (AACN, 1998) and has been described as the essence of nursing (Watson, 1979;1985); yet summative evaluation of nurse caring behaviors is not routinely performed in schools of nursing.
The focus of this non-experimental correlational study is to summatively assess the caring behaviors of senior baccalaureate nursing students. Self reports, faculty evaluations, and patient perceptions of student nurse caring will be compared and relationships among selected student characteristics and student nurse caring behaviors will be measured.
Summative evaluation of caring at graduation will provide an overall assessment of baccalaureate students' nurse caring behaviors, provide information about the quality of participating baccalaureate programs, provide the basis for longitudinal, multisite comparative analysis, and stimulate benchmarking activities. Student participation in the study design provides an opportunity for baccalaureate students to experience the research process and obtain measures of their own caring behaviors. Results may provide the basis for educational intervention studies aimed at improving baccalaureate students' caring behaviors. The National League for Nursing (NLN) research priority of research-based paradigms, strategies, and evaluation models is most closely aligned with this study.
Exploring Centers of Excellence in Nursing Education
An Interpretive Exegesis
The National League for Nursing (NLN) has historically been a front-runner in supporting reform in nursing education. Two such initiatives, the Open Curriculum and the Curriculum Revolution served to mobilize nursing educators to initiate reform to improve and enhance the quality of nursing education. Directed at both curricular and instructional reform, these initiatives gathered nursing educators from diverse settings across the country to work together to both envision and create a new nursing education that was responsive to the pressing challenges of the time.
The challenges facing nursing educators today are no less daunting, including diminishing economic resources for education and research, the nursing and nursing faculty shortage, and an increasingly diverse and part-time student population. Despite the enormity of these challenges, there is currently neither a national-level call for reform in nursing education nor a mechanism to gather nursing educators to collaboratively envision the nursing school of tomorrow. Without such national-level coordination, reform efforts tend to be largely private (based in a single school) and the meaningfulness of such efforts are not widely disseminated.
The purposes of this study are a) to explore the possibilities of designing a national demonstration school project to highlight excellence in nursing education and b) to identify the common experiences and shared meanings of excellence as described by nursing students, teachers, and clinicians to illuminate new possibilities for reform in nursing education.
Being Accredited:
The Experiences of Nursing Faculty Undergoing National Accreditation
Melinda M. Swenson, PhD, RN, and Sharon L. Sims, PhD, RN
Indiana University School of Nursing
The purpose of this qualitative and interpretive study is to explore the lived experiences of faculty members during the process of national accreditation by either the NLNAC (National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission) or CCNE, (Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education), or both. While the purposes and mission of these accrediting bodies are well documented in the literature (Overbay, 2001; Grumet, 2002; Myers, 2001), there are few, if any, discussions of how nursing faculty actually experience the accreditation process. This is an important omission, as the work involved in preparation of self-studies falls largely on the faculty. Do faculty members see accreditation as being worth the effort? Do they experience accreditation visits by NLNAC and CCNE differently? What meaning does accreditation hold for nursing faculty?
Results of the study may help schools of nursing and individual faculty members understand the accreditation process from the point of view of the participants and may identify issues concerning the process that are of interest to accrediting bodies. The study may reveal what is meaningful and significant about the accreditation process, and about its value to schools of nursing. The study may uncover ways to change the accreditation and evaluation process to increase its usefulness to nursing education. The study is aligned broadly with the following NLN Nursing Education Research Priorities: 1) Definition and validation of nursing programs; and 2) Research based paradigms, strategies, and evaluation models for nursing education
Critical thinking: Assessment of Nursing Faculty in Establishing a Benchmark of Performance for Nursing Students
Dolores M. Zygmont and Karen M. Schaefer
The investigators will use both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the critical thinking skills of nursing faculty. The study has a two fold purpose: (a) to determine faculty performance in critical thinking to assist in establishing a benchmark of performance for nursing students and (b) to examine the relationship between epistemological position and critical thinking skills. This study is consistent with two of the NLN's research priorities: (a) Resource accountability models of educating the nursing workforce: Benchmarks for accountability and effectiveness and transformation of education systems and infrastructures to support learning paradigms, and (b) Educator competencies for changing social, health care, and educational worlds: Redefinition of faculty and student roles in learning paradigms and pedagogical literacy of new and current faculty.
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