The Pros And Cons Of Non-Traditional Students

The online (non-traditional) student is often challenged with issues that the traditional (campus-based) student is not; also, the online instructor does not realize the constraints placed upon the online student. Online students are a diverse group of learners from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Rovai (2002) stated certain characteristics could affect student persistence. An example of this is minority students feeling isolated in online courses. Online learners are also classified as independent, self-directed, autonomous, and internally motivated. They typically are 22-50 years of age, unable to enroll in campus-based classes due to other roles and responsibilities, and are lifelong learners (Diaz & Bontenbal as
Individuals choose to learn online because of the flexibility it provides to the student who also has other roles and responsibilities. Though online learning is flexible, the online student faces challenges such as learning how to be an online student, demonstrating effective time management skills, getting familiar with the technology, and learning how to connect with other students and faculty (Stavredes and Herder, 2012). A major role of online instructors is understanding and helping online students overcome the constraints of being an online student and help to push them to their goal of achieving an advanced degree. For faculty teaching online, the methods may be different than the faculty who teach face to face classes. There is no single approach being taken by academic institutions to provide online faculty the skills necessary to teach online. Allen and Seaman (2009) stated, “Only 19 percent of institutions with online offerings report that they have no training or mentoring programs for their online teaching faculty” (p. 3). Allen and Seaman (2009) also stated, “The most common training approaches for online faculty are internally run training courses (65 percent) and informal mentoring (59
3). Stavredes (2012) stated that it is important to provide a comprehensive training session or sessions of any kind, so faculty understands the variables that have an impact on teaching in the online environment. The graduate nursing faculty at a local University support what is written in the literature in regards to providing training to online graduate nursing faculty. A way that online graduate nursing faculty at a local University can improve their understanding and help the online graduate nursing student is through the use of an electronic, media-rich