Fellows 2004-2005 - Assessing Quality in Online Education - School of Nursing
Overview
Approximately half of Duke University School of Nursing's graduate students take their Master's of Science core courses online. A group of faculty and a graduate student from the Duke School of Nursing received a CIT Faculty Fellowship in 2004-05 to evaluate and make recommendations for best practices in the School's online courses and programs. The Fellows sought to review their current online courses to determine which kinds of teaching activities have been most successful and what might be changed and improved in the future, as well as to assure that core courses were addressing externally-determined informatics (applied information technology) competency requirements.
Fellowship Activities
This Fellows program ran from May 2004 to April 2005. Participants attended one week of full day orientation sessions that explored topics such as project planning, best practices, goals and assessments. Followup meetings for the group were held approximately once each month during the academic year. Participants in the program received a $1,250 stipend at the completion of the orientation activities and a second $1,250 stipend in May 2005 contingent on completion of the remaining activities. (A graduate studentparticipating in the program was eligible for a stipend totaling $1,250.
Outcomes
The group developed and applied an evaluation rubric, conducted student focus groups about course quality, and analyzed how well the Nursing core online courses address required competencies in informatics. The group disseminated strategies and deliverables to the School of Nursing Curriculum Committee and Faculty Governance Association with the outcome of expanding quality in online courses and programs.
Online student expectations document created as a result of this Fellowship and later used for all online School of Nursing courses: http://www.nursing.duke.edu/page/student_resources_expect
Online course evaluation rubric 
Informatics competencies matrix
The group used the matrix to determine if all identified competencies (IOM and accreditation standards) were being met through the student completing the core courses.
Participants
Jane Blood-Siegfried, Assistant Clinical Professor
Linda Goodwin, Associate Professor
Elizabeth Hill, Assistant Professor
Carla Gene Rapp, Assistant Professor
Nancy Short, Assistant Dean, Special Projects
Steven Talbert, Adjunct Assistant Professor
John Skinner, Graduate Student assistant
