Computer-mediated distributed learning. An innovative program design in midwifery education.

Abstract

The State University of New York, Stony Brook (SUNY-SB) Pathways to Midwifery Program offers a distributed learning curriculum that is unique among American nurse-midwifery education programs. The Pathways to Midwifery Program provides asynchronic, computer-mediated instruction. Community-based faculty coordinate, supervise, and evaluate the clinical education of students. The SUNY-SB model offers an opportunity to increase dramatically the number of students who can receive the curriculum. It also provides distinct advantages in maintaining a curriculum database that reflects rapidly changing clinical science and that takes advantage of vast educational resources available through related computer networks. By creating a classroom without walls, the program is cost-effective.