Blueprint for Academic Excellence at USC College of Nursing

Appendix D
Distributed Learning (DL) –
Outline the CON involvement with DL:
MSN, DNP, and the Nurse Practitioner certificate programs are delivered almost entirely
online to accommodate the needs of adult learners. Students can access courses from any
computer and complete required learning activities at their convenience within designated
deadlines. Requirements to travel to campus are minimal. In clinical courses, students
may be required to come to campus once or twice during the semester to have their
clinical skills checked off by the faculty member. Flexibility of asynchronous online
learning allows the College of Nursing to reach students throughout the state of South
Carolina and in adjacent states. The courses are highly interactive and contain innovative
and collaborative learning activities such as clinical blogging, multimedia student
presentations and peer critiques, role play exercises, synchronous web team meetings
with instructors.
Selected undergraduate courses for the upper and lower divisions are also offered online
and through live videoconference to facilitate delivery of instruction to USC Lancaster
and USC Salkehatchie, to alleviate classroom scheduling challenges at USC Columbia,
and to introduce undergraduate students to alternative modes of teaching and learning.
These classes are also recorded so the students can watch them at a later date. This is
done in conjunction with the Palmetto Programs group which maintains the Distance
Education rooms at the remote campuses and the videoconference bridge.
The following courses are delivered to groups of over 200 students on three USC
campuses.
NURS J201: Introduction to Human Genetics
NURS 400: Evidence-Based Nursing Practice
NURS J428: Nursing Leadership and Management
NURS J431: Community Health Nursing
NURS J311: Introduction to Health Assessment is delivered in a blended mode. Students
access multimedia course materials, take assessments and collaborate on projects online
through the Blackboard course management system. They meet with the instructors in a
lab setting once a week to practice health assessments skills.
The CON utilizes four primary technologies for Distributive Learning: Adobe Connect
meetings, Adobe Presenter recorded lectures, Blackboard, and Videoconferencing.
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