Your future is guaranteed bright if you choose nursing as your future career after you complete your degree in nursing because the nursing employment opportunities will continue to grow in next 10 years down the road. Basically, you have 2 options to complete the degree, either though online nursing degree program or follows the traditional campus-based nursing program. Online degree program may be a good option for many students looking at it advantages that can benefit most students, but you may not be a right candidate for online education. Hence, before you enroll into an online nursing degree program, you should ask yourself whether pursuing your nursing degree online is right for you.
Being an online student is not as easy as most people think of. Many online students failed to complete their online degree program just because they are not prepare to be a success online student. Hence, if you intend to pursue your nursing degree online, you should consider whether online study is right for you or you may learn better at campus-based classes.
Most online nursing degree programs allow their students to have some extends of self-pace learning. It will benefit students who like flexi learning environment and students who are working while pursuing their nursing degree. But, it can be the factor that causes students who do not have self-discipline to fail in their online study. If you are a person that needs somebody to look at your back or tell you when to complete a task, then earning your nursing degree online may not be a good option for you.
You may need to explore the features and how to use the online learning system of the school. Although the school will provide you with the “how-to-use” guide on their learning system, you still need explore each feature and try them to get yourself familiar with the online learning system. If you are a person that hates to learn new things by yourself without a guide from another person, then you may not effectively use the online learning system to complete your online nursing degree program.
Another key difference between online learning and campus-based study style is you need to read a lot of text materials from computer or printouts, whereas in campus-learning environment, the lecturers will explain the course materials and you just need to sit, hear and take some notes. Which learning style do you prefer? If you prefer the campus-based style, then you should not consider online nursing degree.
Can you communicate effectively through online media such as online chat, discussion board, web video conference or email? These are the major communication channels for online learning environment; you need yourself familiar on how to use them effectively before you consider getting your nursing degree online.
Summary
Basically, you have 2 options to pursue a nursing degree, either online nursing degree program or campus-based nursing study. You should always consider which option works best for you so that you have the best learning environment to earn a nursing degree.