Lessons learned from teaching web-based courses: the 7-year itch.

Abstract

TOPIC: Lessons learned from teaching web-based courses: the 7-year itch. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Increased sophisticated technological communications are rapidly changing the teaching and learning environment. Nursing educators must respond by developing new ways of teaching. Because of these changes, new ways of teaching, course delivery methods, and classroom environments are being discovered. The Internet and the cyberspace environment allow students from all over the nation to sit in the same virtual classroom and "attend lecture" with one instructor. This article describes lessons learned from seven years of teaching on the web on both undergraduate and graduate levels. CONCLUSION: The major challenges for faculty relate to the creation of a stimulated learning environment for communication and interaction among the students, course preparation, workload, time management. Additional challenges are the methods of classroom discussions, teaching methods, responding to students, and teaching a 2-unit clinical component on-line. For students, issues of learning styles, motivation, and class participation are discussed. Results of the students' responses to a 10-item Likert-type course evaluation tool as well as issues for future web educators are presented.