By Greg Russell

The Ohio University School of Nursing rolled out an innovative distance education program this past spring as a means of making a bachelor’s degree in nursing more accessible and affordable to a wider range of students.  But, the program isn’t entirely new—in fact, it’s actually a well-planned update of a degree plan that went online six years ago.  The recent changes, however, have been crucial in helping instructors teach their students.

The school’s revitalized RN to BSN program, launched in March 2009, offers 12 courses through an entirely online format that allows registered nurses to earn a bachelor’s degree in as little as one year.  Each course, which formerly spanned a full 10-week quarter, can now be completed within five weeks.  Students earn course credit by viewing lecture videos and engaging in online discussion forums that are overseen by the instructor.  As part of the upgrade, the course material has been updated to satisfy the newest standards of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

The improved online program is supported through a partnership with Higher Ed Holdings, a service provider that recruits students and delivers the technology platform through which courses are offered.

“It really renews and refreshes our courses by using a format that is going to be easier to navigate,” says Randy Leite, Interim Dean of the College of Health and Human Services at Ohio University.  “In its previous form, it was an online program.  So we’re taking an online program and really remodeling it.  It really embodies the highest values of instructional design for our students.”

Continuous Improvements

Despite the ease of technology that the Higher Ed Holdings online platform provides, students still have to work with diligence to satisfy the degree plan, even if they’re doing it from home.

“The faculty and instructors spend a consistent amount of time monitoring the students and ensuring that they meet the course objective,” Leite says.

But, the new program is intended as an ongoing work in progress—as an example of a “continuous improvement” system. The nursing faculty examines the strengths and areas that can use improvements as they teach the courses, fully expecting to make changes as the program progresses.

The result is a dynamic curriculum providing a great deal of interactivity between students and faculty, with the effect of students being individually more accountable for their progress than might occur in a classroom.

Engagement through Technology

Ohio University School of Nursing Professor Kathy Rose Grippa says her experience in a typical classroom illustrates how the online experience can be more effective.

“When I’m teaching in a classroom…it’s usually the same 25 percent [of the students] who talk,” she says.  “I don’t know what’s going on in the heads of the other 75 percent of the class.  The whole notion that they’re all engaged while in the classroom is ridiculous.”

In this new RN to BSN format, however, students are required to engage with the course content.  As part of their course assignments, students initiate discussions in the online forums and give responses to what they find.

“From that perspective, students across the board learn more,” Grippa says.  “I can be comfortable knowing that the student in the online class have all engaged with the content in the same way.  They’ve all had to think about it because they’ve had to produce something.”

Long-Distance Connections

Leite says a strong argument could be made that the online format guarantees a student more attention from an instructor, even though they aren’t actually in a room with each other.

“Any quality instructor of an online course will attest to the fact that the amount of interaction with individual class members—and with the class as a whole—increases with the online format,” he says.

To remain satisfied in the nursing profession and use their training to meet needs, Grippa says, all students should continue their education and raise their skill levels.  But, she adds that she has detected a change in nursing students over the last few years, based on their responses to course content.

“The recognition is there, that a baccalaureate degree is something that is professionally valuable—not just another credential to have,” Grippa says.  “The point is getting across that having the baccalaureate and even the master’s degree is important to improving patient care.”

She sees this happening through her school’s revitalized RN to BSN program.

“Nurses are taking advantage of it and their employers are encouraging them to take advantage of it,” says Grippa.  “And it should improve healthcare. It enhances the type of care that they deliver.”

Sara Austin