Designing and Teaching Online Courses in Nursing

This book differs from most others related to teaching online because it takes a how-to approach with the twin goals of answering the call to transform nursing education and benefiting from research in cognitive psychology. Each chapter includes relevant concepts, theories, and models to guide course design and teaching online, as well as templates that can be downloaded to save precious time. The focus in the book is on the RN-BSN, master’s, DNP, and PhD programs, as they comprise most of the online programs in nursing, but the contents are applicable to teaching any level of nursing online. Teaching and assessment are one when teaching online; they are not individual activities and cannot really be separated. This is an important concept to grasp, especially if people are a seasoned classroom instructor accustomed to creating separate assignments that add to one’s workload. The book explores how this interconnected approach works. Grading is an important function that drives learning and deserves some attention, as the author thinks people have lost their way to some degree when assessing what constitutes academic achievement. Rubrics have replaced other grading strategies, but not all meet the expectation of greater objectivity in grading, which is their initial intent. A hot topic in online education that relates to workload is the expectation of faculty presence in an online course from both faculty’s and the student’s perspective. This topic is explored in the book. Converting a classroom-based course to the online environment can be a time-consuming task without some guidance as to where to start. Online education is more than uploading one’s classroom lectures into the Learning management systems. The book provides a step-wise approach with some additional tips on converting a classroom course to the online environment.