Nursing education at a distance: using technology to advantage in undergraduate and graduate degree programs in...

Two applications of distance education methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels are described in this article. The experiment in graduate education employed video-conferencing to teach a course in the Master of Nursing program at the University of Alberta. Centres connected by a coaxial cable in two cities with 8-10 students in each were used. In the project which followed in undergraduate education, the Faculty of Nursing undertook to provide an entire post-R.N. degree program to centres in central and northern Alberta primarily through the use of distance methods. Arts and science courses are taken through Athabasca University and regular nursing courses in the B.Sc.N program are provided using video-enhanced teleconferencing with several centres on line along with instructors and students on the main campus in Edmonton, Alberta. Details of this very successful program are discussed in the text.