Conditions That Facilitate the Implementation of Distance Learning Components into Traditional Master's Degree Curricula in Nursing

• Other Authors: Tarrant, Sandra W. (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Public policy; Public administration
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-1690

Distance learning components are being added to many undergraduate and graduate curricula in various academic fields. Nurse-midwifery has been a pioneering field in distance learning and the experiences of faculty and administrators with adding DL components to master's degree curricula provide insight for other administrators and faculty pursuing DL components for traditional master's degree programs. Through this study the researcher examined the conditions that facilitate the implementation of DL components into three master's degree programs in nursing. Faculty and administrator interviews were conducted and documents were analyzed through using NVivo 2.0 as a tool. Donald Ely's theoretical framework was employed, and findings indicate that the two most important conditions for implementing curricular change are Resources and Funding and Knowledge and Skills. The least important of the conditions was Incentives and Rewards for Participants. The study results show that there are similarities with the public universities which are divergent from the private university, which the researcher asserts relates to the differences in institutional missions. More research should be done with larger samples to determine the generalizability of these results across all specialty areas of nursing education as well as other academic fields. === A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring semester, 2004. === March 5, 2004. === Nursing Education, Organizational Change, Organizational Culture, Higher Education, Curriculum Change === Includes bibliographical references. === Dale. W. Lick, Professor Directing Dissertation; Anne E. Rowe, Outside Committee Member; Hollie B. Thomas, Jr., Committee Member; Beverly L. Bower, Committee Member.