Abstract
Faculty from five nursing schools created an innovative RN to BSN program, which is offered via distance education technology. The development of a distance education academic program leading to a degree involved working to overcome many barriers; however, this strategy for delivering an academic degree has a promising future.
In the past 5 years more emphasis has been placed on distance education in higher education. Nursing schools have been developing courses for students at distant locations for many years via correspondence studies. Audio or video teleconferencing for continuing education or a single course has been used for several years at schools of nursing. For over 30 years, the University of Wisconsin has had a history of successful distance education programming (Frazier, Gessner, & Monson, 1998). Nurses can earn a baccalaureate as distant learners by taking credit courses taught by the faculty of the Schools of Nursing in the University of Wisconsin System.
The University of Wisconsin offers five baccalaureate nursing programs; each school had its own RN to baccalaureate program. The five schools of nursing did not have large enrollments in any one of the programs to sustain a predictable outreach program; therefore, the idea of a collaborative RN-BSN program made sense.
The University of Wisconsin Extension administrators were interested in supporting models of collaboration and this was one proposal that was developed with the University of Wisconsin system nursing schools.