Transcultural nursing concepts and experiences in nursing curricula.

Future trends in the convergence of a multicultural world continue to intensify the need to educate nurses to deliver culturally focused care. A descriptive survey was conducted to examine curricular trends related to the teaching of transcultural nursing (TCN) in nursing curricula of baccalaureate and higher degree schools of nursing in the United States. Faculty development and qualifications to teach transcultural nursing were identified as well as methods for collaboration between schools of nursing. Although TCN concepts are incorporated into most curricula, wide variation exists as to content, depth, and level of integration. Implications call for collaboration with accrediting agencies, including state boards of nursing, to strengthen expected outcomes related to culture, curricular reviews of nursing courses regarding the incorporation of TCN concepts and experiences, collaboration on culturally focused field experiences, faculty development, and networking across schools to expand available resources.

Evaluation of traditional classroom teaching methods versus course delivery via the World Wide Web.

Higher education is moving with deliberate speed to an electronic classroom. Much has been published on faculty experiences with World Wide Web (WWW) course delivery. However, little research exists on the evaluation of these methods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate students' perceptions of two approaches to teaching: classroom and WWW modules. Classroom methods were rated significantly higher in relation to content, interaction, participation, faculty preparation, and communication. Technical skills were rated higher for WWW modules. Critical thinking and time allotted for assignments were not significantly different between classroom and WWW instruction. Open-ended comments were rich and supported both positive and negative aspects of classroom and WWW-based modules. Implications call for creativity in course development, course redesign and orientation, active communication with students, support for technical problems, faculty development, and university-wide planning through partnerships.

Designing courses for the Internet. A conceptual approach.

One current higher education paradigm shift is the movement from traditional classroom settings and interactive television satellite transmission to course and program delivery via the World Wide Web (WWW). The authors describe the experiences of faculty in reconceptualizing and redesigning course and program delivery via the Internet. An electronic "template" has been collaboratively developed by multidisciplinary university partners to facilitate this work. The template incorporates an advanced nursing practice conceptual framework based on American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) core educational essentials for advanced practice combined with a continuum of electronic course tools. Strategies, tools, and applications are discussed.

Redefining continuing education delivery.

Just as technology is transforming the delivery of education, the Internet and advanced telecommunication applications are changing the "face" of CE and the connotation of "lifelong learning." As late as the mid-1980s, a discussion of computer applications in nursing CE focused on the "timely" transition to microcomputers as tools for the enhancement of managerial tasks for increased productivity. Even as recently as 1990, there seemed to be "time" for those providers who were "slower to adopt innovation" to "catch up." Now, the CE provider who does not integrate the microcomputer and advanced telecommunications as an integral component of their delivery modalities may be outsourced rapidly by an educational or commercial competitive unit that is able to utilize the communication medium, mergers and partnerships, enterprise, and individual lifestyle and learning patterns that will epitomize the CE unit of the 21st century. As with the "re-engineering" of nursing education, the "re-engineered" delivery modalities of evolving CE entity might now best be conceptualized on a continuum from the traditional mode that time and place dependent to a mode of synchronous and asynchronous data and advanced telecommunication. Delivery methods will need to be selected according to the target populations, content, and situation. The health-care educational provider may discover, as in other industries, that a combination of distance and residential offerings will be the most successful medium for the delivery of CE to the progressively more "information and technologically savvy" lifelong learner of the 21st century. In addressing the dramatic effects of the information technology era on the refocused multimedia/interactive delivery method for student education, educators amply quoted Bob Dylan's phrase of the 1960s, "The times, they are a-changing." And so, we see that the times are also changing at an astronomical rate for the health-care educational provider as well as the individual health-care worker consumer. A number of national and world-wide trends are propelling rapid changes in the delivery modalities and types of emerging providers for health-care CE. Examples of these advanced telecommunications applications of CE opportunities for health-care personnel are becoming more prevalent in the literature and the pattern of CE marketing, and delivery evolution can be seen readily on the Internet. Continued program success and viability will belong to the individuals and organizations who are able to conceptualize and envision the positive transformations and opportunities that can occur from the evolving paradigm of education for the lifelong learner of the 21st century.

Portfolio applications in a school of nursing.

The portfolio is an effective way to document and evaluate academic and career development. The authors discuss various applications of the process of portfolio implementation via computer in a graduate school of nursing. Portfolio guidelines, format, and a program outcome grid are presented. The portfolio also provides product information that can be used by faculty members for program evaluation.

Computerized test development software a comparative review.

Nurse educators, searching for the best use of technology to facilitate the development and administration of tests, are confronted with a wide variety of computerized test development programs from which to choose. This article provides a comparative review of seven commercially available computerized test development programs: A+ Test Manager and Test Taker, AUTOGENT, CATSoftware System, LXR*TEST, MicroCAT, Question Designer for Windows, and Test Construction Set. Criteria for evaluating these programs including ease of use, psychometric properties, security, and system requirements are discussed. Issues associated with the implementation of computerized test development and computerized test administration are considered. It is imperative that nurse educators understand their goals for computerized test development and administration in the context of their own setting before purchasing a program.