Twenty-first century doctoral education: online with a focus on nursing education.

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.