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What type of student makes a good candidate for an online education? What are the best ways to study at home? Anyone can pick up a book and browse through text, but only someone who can put in marathon-type duty at the computer will be able to digest class materials across a computer screen. And they must do it alone. Linda Bovis, RN, EMD, who works in Florida and regularly takes courses online that pertain to her career, said there are many types of students who are ideal candidates for online education. "Working persons whose hours of freedom do not correspond to "usual" classroom experience; students seeking courses from remote locations and facilities, [or] students with family responsibilities" make good online students, according to Bovis. But if the isolation is too overwhelming and you're not a self-starter, then registering for online classes might not be a good idea. One home-study nursing student from Regents College in New York said if she had the choice, she would go to school versus earning a degree online or through home-study courses. "Human contact is a plus," she said. "However, doing it on your own is not impossible. If you're a self-starter, you can do it; if you are not, then it will be a challenge." A benchmarking project conducted by the University of Kansas, Indiana University and the University of Colorado schools of nursing, reviews responses from nursing students who have taken an online course. Helen Connors, Ph.D., RN, associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, who reviews student feedback, said most of the negative comments she has seen from her students concerns the lack of interaction between classmates. But Connors added the positives far outweigh the negatives. "The students like the access, flexibility, and they feel that [the classes] are highly interactive," Connors said. "They feel like they are responsible for their own learning, and that there is better faculty/student interaction." Connors also said that instructors who have received low reviews from regular classroom students tended to do better when they taught a course online. "I do feel like some faculty are better than others at teaching online," Connors said. "There will always be faculty who are not strong classroom teachers, but get lots of accolades when they instruct online." |
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NEWS
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