Distance Education Program for Nurses

I have currently been accepted into a distance education graduate program and the thought of doing all of my coursework online is daunting, to say the least. The only other experience I have with distance education was taking pharmacology online during nursing school. Although I learned a lot and thought the teacher did a great job of integrating technology and not making the class feel as though it was online, I still couldn’t help but wonder if I would have gotten more out of it if I were in an actual classroom.

So how do you make your online or distance education class feel real to you?

I think a big mistake that students make is that they don’t take the distance education class seriously. It’s easy to not feel accountable to your coursework when you don’t have a teacher reminding you of test dates and assignment due dates. A great way to overcome this is to have an organizer and update it and look at it regularly. If you have your entire semester planned out it is easier to stay ahead and not forget about the class altogether.

How do you stay connected to your teacher and classmates?

Thanks to social media it is now easier than ever to stay connected to other people. Feel free to contact your classmates on Facebook or Twitter to help motivate each other to study. If you are in the same town, try to arrange biweekly study groups to connect and ask one another questions about the course. Just because your class isn’t in a classroom, doesn’t mean you have to suffer alone.

At the beginning of your course make sure to reach out to your teacher. Send him/her an email introducing yourself just to make a connection so that later when you have more questions it won’t feel uncomfortable. Most teachers also post their office phone number in case you want to talk in person. Try to do this if you can’t figure out a problem and need to talk it out with someone. That’s what they’re there for.

How do you succeed with testing?

Prepare for the tests like you would any other test. Some students get into trouble because they think that since the test is online they won’t have to study because they’ll have time to look up the answers. Most teachers are wise to this thought and often make the tests worded in a way that makes it difficult to answer unless you’ve fully prepared yourself. They also tend to make a shorter time limit so you don’t look the answers up in a book. Read, study, and prepare yourself and you’ll find the exams are no different than your other classes.

How do you feel about distance education? Have you had good success with it? If so, why?