A rubric for improving the quality of online courses.

All of the graduate students in the School of Nursing take some of their Master of Science courses online. A group of six School of Nursing faculty members and a graduate student received funding to determine best practices in online courses. The group developed an evaluation rubric to measure quality in the graduate online curriculum. They then applied the rubric to the core courses which are primarily offered online and are required for all graduate nursing students. The project had a positive impact on faculty by offering a tool useful for online course evaluation and development. Additionally it brought to attention the needs of faculty member development in online education.