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Online Focus
Outsourcing IT for Online Education
10/25/2007
Intending to target students who couldn't attend traditional courses owing to work and family commitments, Ocean started the program with students who already had patient care experience in hospitals. The hybrid program is now open to all nursing students.
Some 20 students enrolled in the pilot; another 40 students were added the following semester. With the hybrid section now solidly in place, the college has admitted an additional 60 new students each spring, allowing a 40 percent enrollment boost.
A full-time instructional designer, part of the staff supplied by SunGard HE, was absolutely key to building the nursing courses online, Wetta said. "You can't do this well without an instructional designer.... We need someone who's here, who has good rapport with the faculty, who understands the way faculty think about course delivery, and who works well with them."
With a day class, evening class, and hybrid program to choose from, perhaps 25 percent of nursing students are taking advantage of the hybrid course, Wetta estimated. Even better news: Every student in the hybrid program passed the state nursing licensing exam, a pass rate that exceeded that of nursing students in the traditional courses. That helped validate that not only is the online course popular and meeting student needs, but it is a well crafted learning system.
"That was big for us," Wetta said. "We want to make sure that not only is distance education convenient for students, but that it's effective. What distinguishes a good online course? It might be different from what distinguishes a traditional classroom course."
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Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
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