Twenty-first century doctoral education: online with a focus on nursing education.
ABSTRACT The acute shortage of doctorally prepared nursing faculty has prompted the nursing profession to look to new and creative ways of delivering doctoral-level preparation to currently employed nurse educators. The development of an online PhD program, based on recommended benchmark guidelines for a "best practice" approach to Internet-based education, led to a program evaluation matrix for formative and summative student advising and program review. In addition, efforts to seek the student voice in formative as well as summative evaluation provided a well-rounded plan to monitor program outcomes based on recommended benchmark guidelines. The results of first-year student feedback and perceptions reflect that online PhD program delivery promotes high quality professional socialization, mentoring, and student-faculty interaction. The online education experience has served as a stimulus for the incorporation of new learning into the student workplace setting, provides opportunity for educational access not previously available, and builds strong personal and professional relationships among nurse educators.Key Words Internet-based Nursing Education--Doctoral Program Evaluation--Doctoral Nursing Education--Best Practice Nursing Education
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DELIVERY OF HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMIC PROGRAMS OF THE FUTURE IS PREDICTED TO BE INDEPENDENT OF TIME AND PLACE (1). This forecast is largely influenced by a technological revolution that has provided an array of creative ways to deliver educational programming. Nursing education has clearly embraced the infusion of technology in instructional delivery with an increasing number of faculty members incorporating Internet-based teaching strategies into course offerings. Entire graduate programs are now offered online, including doctoral-level degree programs. > Although technologically facilitated pedagogies are being adopted rapidly, less attention has been given to examining the quality and efficacy of this instruction as compared to traditional educational practices. THE IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF A TOTALLY ONLINE PHD PROGRAM IN NURSING EDUCATION IS DESCRIBED IN THIS ARTICLE.
Doctoral Nursing Education in the United States The acute shortage of doctorally prepared nurses poised to do the work of research and teaching in academia is widely recognized and well documented (2-7). The discipline of nursing has seen slow growth in the number of graduates of doctoral programs just as a high proportion of current nurse faculty are approaching retirement (3,4,8). Due to the later age at which most nurses complete their doctoral work, faculty holding terminal degrees have little career time to spend in academia and/or research (9).
The growth in the number of doctoral programs has been found to be more rapid than the growth in the population of doctorally prepared nurses. Compounding the problem of doctoral program completion is the attrition rates in such programs, reported to be as high as 50 percent (9,10).
The traditional focus on research preparation in PhD academic programs is rarely geared to the preparation of master teachers. Yet, the primary role graduates of doctoral programs assume upon degree completion is that of a faculty position with teaching responsibilities in a college or university (11). Universities that emphasize excellence in teaching and service as well as research and whose mission is focused on excellence in education advocate for better educator preparation at the doctoral level. This is particularly true of Carnegie research-intensive universities that emphasize the fusion of the roles of scholar and teacher--one is not emphasized to the exclusion of the other (12-14).
Benchmarking Online Education The growth of technology-mediated distance education in higher education institutions over the last decade has prompted the development of benchmarks--principles and guidelines--to promote quality education. In 1999, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) indicated a significant need for improved research and policy making for all distance education programs (15). A second IHEP study in 2000 (16) reviewed available quality indicators from various institutions of higher learning considered to be leaders in Internet-based education. This second report, which summarized 24 benchmarks, identified a lack of faculty, student, and institutional incorporation and awareness of benchmarks for quality online education.
In 2003, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) initiated a study of technologically mediated instruction within higher education (13). The study outcomes led to the development of "best practice" guidelines for Internet-based programs. The HLC best practices were designed to assist institutions of higher education in planning distance education activities for electronically offered degree programs, and to provide a self-assessment framework for evaluation. Consisting of five benchmarks, the document addresses institutional activities significant to quality outcomes in electronically offered programs. (See Table 1.)
Benchmarking in Nursing The higher education community needs to continue to explore ways technology can enhance the teaching/learning process. Billings, Connors, and Skiba (1) encouraged the early and consistent monitoring of outcomes in the newly established Internet-based programs embraced by nursing education. However, the assessment of Internet-based programs against best practice benchmarks has yet to be fully addressed (17). Such assessment is imperative for understanding best practice approaches to nursing education, and specific tracking of recommended benchmarks in technology-assisted doctoral programs would provide a forum for analyzing effective pedagogical practices.
As faculty responsible for, and a student consumer of, an online PhD program in nursing education, the authors carefully reviewed the Billings, Connors, and Skiba recommendations (1), the AACN document detailing quality indicators for doctoral nursing programs in nursing (18), the IHEP benchmarks (16), and the HLC benchmarks for Internet-based academic programs (13). They then designed a program matrix based on program objectives and desired learning outcomes, including successful completion of required program elements, written product outcomes, oral presentation products, and skill-set excellence demonstrated throughout the program.
The authors expect to use this matrix for annual program review, as well as for formative and summative student advising. (See Table 2.) In addition to the matrix, students are anonymously surveyed for feedback on the program's ability to promote professional connectedness, socialization into the discipline, and student satisfaction. The collective matrices and annual student survey feedback will provide data for a complete program review.
Interdisciplinary Partnership Strategies Early in the planning of the online PhD in nursing education, faculty recognized the importance of role modeling teaching excellence. Along with the academic content of formal course work, there would be direct application of best practice pedagogies. Because the doctoral program in nursing education is housed within the University of Northern Colorado, which has a nationally designated Center of Excellence in Education (www.unco.edu), the School of Nursing (SON) drew upon the strengths and best practice approaches to doctoral education previously established and espoused by the institution's College of Education (COE). An interdisciplinary partnership between the SON and various COE schools (educational psychology, educational technology, statistical measurement and design, educational leadership) allowed nurse faculty to draw from best practice pedagogy demonstrated on campus for the online doctoral nursing program.
Link (19) has referred to such partnership activities as "breaking out of the silos" of discipline-specific higher education. The formal partnership not only allows for student exposure to experienced, education-based faculty but promotes research collaboration and multidisciplinary grant-funding opportunities, as well as transdisciplinary occasions for professional presentations and manuscript preparation and submission. Students of the doctoral nursing program have consistently provided feedback regarding their experience of gaining a greater understanding of related disciplines and a valuing of the contributions of education to nursing scholarship and pedagogy.
Student Voices in Benchmarking As previously indicated, the formative and summative evaluation of the online PhD program was designed to include feedback from students beyond the established course evaluation process. The student voice is critical in evaluating what works and what does not work. Listening to the student voice in the evaluation of online education will ultimately lead to higher quality doctoral nursing education programs.
Student feedback and perceptions regarding their doctoral experiences is sought annually in the summer months, after grades have been received for semester course work during the academic year. With the assistance of the student co-author, this material has been collected and summarized to ensure that the voice of the doctoral student was not lost in the analysis.
Students enrolled in the online doctoral program consistently express enthusiastic appreciation for the opportunity to access doctoral nursing education while remaining in their faculty positions. In many cases, geographical access to a doctoral program in nursing is severely limited. As the shortage of nurse faculty becomes even more critical, doctoral programs that permit master's-prepared faculty to remain in their teaching positions while achieving the terminal degree become vital to the discipline of nursing education.
The experiences of the contributing student author are typical. The student's employer, a small university housing a nursing program, encourages completion of the nursing doctorate. However, only the program administrator and two of the 50 faculty members hold the terminal degree. The prospect of additional faculty completing their doctorates in nursing education is complicated by the lack of doctoral programs in the geographic area that would permit currently employed faculty to continue their teaching responsibilities. Until the initiation of quality online doctoral education in nursing, continued teaching with master's-level preparation was the only alternative. Like her fellow students, the author appreciates that online doctoral education supports the honoring of both family and professional commitments while pursuing educational goals.
Student feedback indicates that online delivery of the academic program has not been a barrier to their professional socialization or mentoring relationships. The doctoral students overwhelmingly relate that their online classes are rigorous and challenging, producing deep and lasting professional and personal growth. "I have been able to get to know my professors and peers in greater depth than I ever did in my previous graduate education experiences" was a statement that was repeatedly seen in the first annual survey feedback.
Daily online contact with professors and student peers is frequent, more than superficial, and allows for a "deeper sharing of the personal self." The high-level frequency of student-faculty interaction has resulted in a dynamic, caring, and close-knit cohort group. In one student's experience, "The high level of mentoring anti professional sharing is unparalleled. Lifelong personal and professional collaborations will likely be the product of this cohort experience."
The faculty authors have been amazed at the number of student-authored manuscripts submitted for publication following course-related assignments. Even though students are geographically thousands of miles apart, and in some eases have not met more than once face to face, they have formed professional alliances to successfully publish manuscripts from pooled written products following course work experiences.
Doctoral faculty engaged in online course delivery have been impressed with the quality and frequency with which doctoral students communicate among one another, both within the online course discussions as well as through informal doctoral "chat" discussions, independent of course work. The use of email, telephone, and chat rooms has increased access to doctoral faculty compared to traditional residential doctoral study. Student socialization has been enhanced by a required campus-based orientation to the program, coupled with attendance at a national nursing conference where students share professionally as well as personally in both structured and informal settings. Seasoned doctoral students express excitement about sharing their experiences with new cohort groups and have initiated their own student-mentoring program with minimal faculty facilitation.
In their own workplaces, doctoral students note that their master's-prepared colleagues benefit front the ongoing infusion of new teaching and professional concepts into the academic environment. Students relate work experiences where their course assignments, readings, and discussions have become the focus of their respective faculty meetings, clinical seminars, and classes for which they are personally responsible. The assimilation of newly learned concepts appears to happen with greater immediacy when doctoral students remain in the classroom educating their own nursing students. The doctoral students speak often of how their students benefit as they apply their personal doctoral learning experiences to the classes that they teach every day.
Conclusion Recognition of and reflection on benchmarking guidelines for technology-mediated doctoral nursing programs is imperative for promoting quality in higher education. Careful attention to partnerships that promote adaptation of best practice pedagogies increases the potential that quality is not only maintained but enhanced as new academic programs increasingly move to Internet-based delivery models.
Seeking student feedback to assess professional socialization aspects of higher education provides another significant dimension to program review. Online doctoral students clearly state that where there once were seemingly impossible geographical and quality barriers to PhD nursing programs, there is now access to high quality, academic experiences in higher education leading to the terminal degree. The program evaluation matrix and evaluative feedback are critical tandem components to monitoring best practice approaches to Internet-based doctoral education.
As online doctoral programming provides access and opportunity for the PhD in nursing, it generates enthusiasm and quality professional socialization for students who will be our nation's future nurse educators. Increased access to doctoral education in nursing, while avoiding the removal of faculty from the workforce, is imperative to the preparation of nurses in the 21st century.
References
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(2.) Hinshaw, A. S. (2001). A continuing challenge: The shortage of educationally prepared nursing faculty. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 6(1), Manuscript 3. [Online]. Available: http:// nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/ TableofContents/Volume62001/Number 1 January2001/ShortageofEducationalFaculty.aspx.
(3.) American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2003, May). Faculty shortages in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs: Scope of the problem and strategies for expanding the supply. Washington, DC: Author. [Online].Available: www.aacn.nche.edu/Publications/pdf/TFFFWP.pdf.
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(8.) American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2000). Institutions offering doctoral programs in nursing and degrees conferred. Washington, DC: Author.
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(10.) Baird, L. (Ed.). (1993). New directions for institutional research: Increasing graduate student retention and degree attainment, No. 80. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
(11.) Fitzpatrick, J. J. (2002).The best scientists do not the best teachers make [Editorial]. Nursing and Health Care Perspectives, 22(2), 61.
(12.) University of Northern Colorado. (2007). Mission statement. [Online]. Available: www.unco.edu/pres/mission/html.
(13.) Higher Learning Commission. (2003). Handbook of accreditation (3rd ed.). Chicago: Author.
(14.) North Central Association Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. (2000). Best practices for electronically offered degree and certificate programs. Chicago: Author.
(15.) Institute for Higher Education Policy. (I 999). What's the difference? A review of contemporary research on the effectiveness of distance learning in higher education. Washington, DC: Author.
(16.) institute for Higher Education Policy. (2000). Quality on the line: Benchmarks for success in Internet-based distance education. Washington, DC: Author. [Online]. Available: www.ihep.com/Pubs/PDF/Quality.pdf.
(17.) Twomey, A. (2004). Web-based teaching in nursing: Lessons from the literature. Nurse Education Today, 24, 452-458.
(18.) American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2001). Indicators of quality in research-focused doctoral programs in nursing [Position Statement]. Washington, DC: Author. [Online]. Available: www.aacn.nche.edu/Publications/positions/ qualityindicators.htm).
(19.) Link, D. (2003). Interdisciplinary education: Breaking out of the silos. In M. H. Oermann, & K. T. Heinrich (Eds.), Annual review of nursing education, Vol. I. New York: Springer Publishing.
Debra Woodard Leners, PhD, RN, PNP, CNE, and Vicki W. Wilson, PhD, RN, are professors at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley; where Dr. Leners has served as doctoral program coordinator and school director. Kathleen L. Sitzman, MS, RN, is assistant professor of nursing, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, and a student in the University of Northern Colorado doctoral program. For more information, contact Dr. Leners at Deb.Leners@unco.edu.
Table 1. Benchmarks and Best Practices for Internet-based Education Institute for Higher Education Higher Learning Commission Policy INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT AND COMMITMENT A centralized distance Electronically offered programs education infrastructure both support and extend the ensures that security of roles of educational information and quality institutions. standards are met. COURSE DEVELOPMENT CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION Course development and delivery Standards of quality exist for are based on learning outcomes both curriculum and pedagogy and program standards. and are focused on learning outcomes. TEACHING/LEARNING PROCESS Teaching/learning interactions are timely and facilitated in a variety of ways. COURSE STRUCTURE Students are provided with complete information regarding course content, learner outcomes, expectations, and learning resources. STUDENT SUPPORT STUDENT SUPPORT Student support services, Twenty-first century students including technical assistance are different, and electronically and program requirements, are offered programs must serve them clearly described to program appropriately. enrollees. FACULTY SUPPORT FACULTY SUPPORT Training, assistance, and Faculty roles are diverse and support are provided to faculty reorganized with course involved in teaching distance development and delivery. courses. EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT Program effectiveness is Sustained, evidence-based assessed in multiple ways, and evaluation and assessment must intended learning outcomes are guide program design, delivery, monitored regularly. policies, and process. Table 2. Doctoral Nursing Program Evaluation Matrix Student Name -- Adviser -- Date PROGRAM OBJECTIVES LEARNING OUTCOMES Required Elements Writing Products Pedagogy EXAMPLES EXAMPLES foundations Course work / Curriculum design comprehensive exams / projects or pilot teaching practicum research / Documentation / Date instructional design projects or pilot research Documentation / Date Research EXAMPLES EXAMPLES foundations Conceptual area of Course work / grant Professional interest or focus submissions / manuscript development comprehensive exams / and submission / dissertation research projects or Documentation / Date pilots in progress Documentation / Date Professional EXAMPLES EXAMPLES leadership foundations Course work / academic Leadership program service participation / development / policy policy analysis development/ peer Documentation / Date review Documentation / Date Nursing EXAMPLES EXAMPLES science / theory Course work / Philosophy of science foundations conceptual and theory review framework analysis / papers / construction theoretical model of theoretical analysis / frameworks / comprehensive exams construction of Documentation / Date theoretical models Documentation / Date Oral Presentation Skill-set Experience Products Demonstrated Pedagogy EXAMPLES EXAMPLES foundations Faculty and peer- Internship evaluated lectures / experiences / presentations and faculty, peer, and posters / orals student evaluations / Documentation / Date letters of evaluation Documentation / Date Research EXAMPLES EXAMPLES foundations Conceptual area of Oral presentation of Best practice approach interest or focus scholarly research to nursing education, project or activity / pedagogy / proposal professional podium development / presentation / poster IRB completion, presentations successful grant Documentation / Date funding Documentation / Date Professional EXAMPLES EXAMPLES leadership foundations Podium presentation / Political process leadership role participation / participation / lobbying experience / peer mentorship program policy change participation activities / Documentation / Date leadership role outcomes Documentation / Date: Nursing EXAMPLES EXAMPLES science / theory Comprehensive orals / Manuscript foundations dissertation proposal development / orals / dissertation theory-driven or defense theory-based Documentation / Date research, curriculum design, analysis, and development Documentation / Date
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| Author: | Leners, Debra Woodard; Wilson, Vicki W.; Sitzman, Kathleen L. |
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| Publication: | Nursing Education Perspectives |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Nov 1, 2007 |
| Words: | 3067 |
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