title: Twenty-first century doctoral education: online with a focus on nursing education.
abstract: The acute shortage of doctorally prepared nursing faculty has prompted the nursing profession to look to new and creative ways of delivering doctoral-level preparation to currently employed nurse educators. The development of an online PhD program, based on recommended benchmark guidelines for a "best practice" approach to Internet-based education, led to a program evaluation matrix for formative and summative student advising and program review. In addition, efforts to seek the student voice in formative as well as summative evaluation provided a well-rounded plan to monitor program outcomes based on recommended benchmark guidelines. The results of first-year student feedback and perceptions reflect that online PhD program delivery promotes high quality professional socialization, mentoring, and student-faculty interaction. The online education experience has served as a stimulus for the incorporation of new learning into the student workplace setting, provides opportunity for educational access not previously available, and builds strong personal and professional relationships among nurse educators.
authors.affiliation: University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, USA. Deb.Leners@unco.edu
authors.forename: Debra Woodard
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Leners
authors.forename: Vicki W
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Kathleen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Sitzman
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction; D020375:Education, Distance; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States