Learning Objective #1: Describe sense of belonging

Learning Objective #2: List at least two reasons why more and more students are requesting graduate courses online

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The use of the Internet for on-line education purposes has grown over the past decade. More than 40% of college courses use on line resources compared to only 11% in 1995 (Green,2000). For many students, on-line courses offer the opportunity for professional growth that may otherwise not be available to them, (York, 2002). In addition, faculty members often find themselves under pressure from administration to offer on-line courses. Furthermore, as office and classroom space become scare commodities, on-line offerings become a likely alternative. Chickering and Gamson's seminal work on priciples of good teaching practices have influenced web-based delivery system such as BlackBoard (C) and WebCt (C). They identify seven principles of good teaching practice (Slater Stern, 2004). More than 50% of the seven principles entail association or connectiveness with others. The purpose of this study was to examine sense of belonging in graduate nursing students taking an on-line versus traditional advanced research course. A descriptive comparative design using a convenience sample was used. An independent t-test was used. Level of significance was set at <.05. The Sense of Belonging Instrument was used (Hagerty & Patsky, 1995).