An Issue That Impacts Distance-Education Learning - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Distance Education Learning An Issue That Impacts Distance-Education Learning Insert Grade Insert 01 June Increasing population and longer life expectancies for people living with chronic diseases has stretched the existing demands for nurses, with acute nurse shortages experienced in most health institutions. Decreasing number of young people entering nursing programs and the accelerated older nurses retirement in large numbers has compounded the problem making a critical nurses shortage crisis possible in the future. Lacks of adequate nursing faculty members and adequate space and facilities have created severe limitations to prospective students seeking admission in nursing institutions, significantly contributing to the existing nurse shortfalls. Distance education programs have been adopted by most institutions to alleviate the nursing shortage by offering nursing education to people who cannot attend traditional classes because of jobs, family, geographical distance, or economic hardships (Smith, Passmore, & Faught, 2009). This new online education module promises a relief to the nurse shortage problem but has various challenges for both faculty members and students. Nursing faculty members face technology limitation issues when teaching. Distance learning has inherent differences with traditional teaching. Though the program objectives and purposes are the same, the main difference is that distance learning occurs via web-based technology. This technology connects both the student and the faculty members separated by time and space denying them face-to-face interaction, essential for development of effective teacher student supportive relationships (Smith, Passmore, & Faught, 2009). The lack of face-to-face contact requires the faculty members to develop many new roles to teach, guide, support and assess their students. They cannot be able to discern the body languages of their students over the web, which is crucial in teaching. For successful distance nursing facilitation, instructors must learn and develop new social and technological skills to use over the net. They must be possessing flexibility, patience, and amiable persona essential in developing interactive communication and relationships with their students (Smith, Passmore, & Faught, 2009). They must also develop and improve their basic computer skills to understand the concepts of online web based technology, which requires considerable investment of time and resources for the faculty members to be comfortable with the technologies. Technologies used in distance learning include hybridized audio, video, printable and web based accessories, which maximize student learning experience and efficiency. Instructors need to invest their time and resources to keep pace with new technologies (Smith, Passmore, & Faught, 2009). Designing distance learning modules require the coordination of various specialists and experts and doing this is a considerable challenge for instructors who have different opinions and ideas. Keeping in touch with the wide number of students, who are at different locations and with different cultures, is also an extraordinarily difficult challenge for faculty members who may be forced to work under different time zones. They must be able to plan and develop multi site communications, which require continuous upgrading of hardware and policy to improve efficiency. Failure to do this would render the programs redundant because of lack of co-ordination. Increased use of web based technology for distance learning may infringe intellectual and copyrights of materials been transmitted over the net. The wide number of materials used by different instructors is sometimes impossible to employ without infringements, and they may expose these programs to lawsuits. There is an urgent need for clarification on most of the materials used. Online nursing programs are similar to other courses taught online (Smith, Heindel, & Torres-Ayala, 2008), but assessment becomes a problem. It is impossible to verify the identity of the student and prohibit the use of unauthorized materials (Trenholm, 2007). Faculties members must continually design and implement new interactive assessments that can aid them know the progress of their students. Some clinical situations need nurses to apply high critical thinking, and it is difficult to impart these skills online. Without appropriate assessment tools, faculty ability to deliver authentic assessments is not possible as online assessments standards are not uniform. Distance learning has the possibility of students sharing tests over different periods, which can lower the standards of distance learning for nurses. These students may face certain challenges in the real life situations if faculty members fail to address these issues. Faculty members also need to develop innovative ways of motivating their students as they lack the normal competitive motivational factor present in classrooms. Students often cite online courses as being too demanding and time consuming than normal classes (kozlowski, 2004). Without students being focused and self-directed, most distance-learning students will fail their tests. Students must be consistent in checking their work online. However, without appropriate tools it is impossible for faculty members to know if their students are progressing well. Lack of motivation can lead to many students performing poorly or dropping out of the programs, which would constitute loss of resources and time. Conclusion The major objective of any online nursing education program is to produce qualified nurses who can effectively work in any clinical situation. Faculties need to develop effective online assessment methods that would guarantee the academic integrity of these online nursing students. Discussion boards should be appropriately used by faculty members to assess their students. This will help simulate traditional classroom environment with instructors able to know weaknesses and strong areas in individual students and effectively address them. These online discussions would also be invaluable to students as they would be mentored by their instructors in dealing with real life situations. Prerequisite technical skills should be mandatory to both students and faculty members. Technical support should also be provided to both students and instructors at all times so as to take advantage of the emerging technology and tools, which would improve the efficiency and experience of the learning process. The shortage of faculty members should also be addressed to enable effective online teaching to the many students in these programs. This is because online teaching consumes a lot of time and requires much more time to prepare for teaching. More staff would ensure effective marking and grading of students work, with the ability to timely provide feedback to each and every student. More faculty members would also enable efficient online assessment with the ability to use plagiarism tools to check the students’ work authenticity. Distance learning promises to solve the worldwide nursing shortage, but technological limitation must be overcome to make it successful. References Kozlowski, D. (2004). Factors for Consideration in the Development and Implementation of an Online RN-BSN Course: Faculty and Student Perceptions. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 22(1), 34–43. Smith, G. G., Heindel, A. J., & Torres-Ayala, A. T. (2008). E-Learning Commodity or Community: Disciplinary Differences between Online Courses. Internet and Higher Education, 11(3–4), 152–159. Smith, G.G., Passmore, D., and Faught, T. (2009). The Challenges of Online Nursing Education. Internet and Higher Education, 12 (2009) 98–103 Trenholm, S. (2007). A Review of Cheating In Fully Asynchronous Online Courses: A Math Or Fact-Based Course Perspective. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 35(3), 281–300. Read More