Nursing students in the Pilbara are moving a step closer to increasing their qualifications through \u201cvirtual\u201d attendance at Curtin University\u2019s Bentley Campus.<\/p>\n
In a new initiative for Curtin, students in the Enrolled Nurse to Registered Nurse Stream in Port Hedland have been using high-end video technology to take part in lectures, tutorials and group learning exercises being conducted more than 1600 kilometres away in Perth as part of a two-year pilot project.<\/p>\n
The innovative, \u201cvirtual classroom\u201d project has been made possible by $692,000 in funding from the WA Government\u2019s Royalties for Regions Program, through the Pilbara Development Commission\u2019s Pilbara Education Partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis initiative within our BSc Nursing degree is the perfect illustration of the Curtin Converged concept, which aims to transform the traditional notion of the classroom, free from geographical bounds,\u201d Curtin Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education Professor Jill Downie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil now Pilbara-based students could only participate as external students.<\/p>\n
\u201cUse of video conference and other online learning technologies in a collaborative learning environment means they can now participate in real-time, in-class activities with their fellow students in Perth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe benefit of this additional support and interaction creates an \u2018on-campus\u2019 learning experience not previously available to regional and remote students.\u201d<\/p>\n
A learning centre at the Pilbara Institute \u2013 the region\u2019s TAFE \u2013 has been refurbished and equipped with video conferencing facilities with the Royalties for Regions funding, which will also be used to undertake an evaluation of the project in 2014.<\/p>\n
The first learning session under the new \u201cdistributed\u201d model was conducted successfully in the past fortnight and there are plans to increase student numbers for the course next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time Curtin has used this model and I\u2019m delighted by the positive reception so far,\u201d Professor Downie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to make a Curtin education available to any student regardless of their geographic location.<\/p>\n
\u201cInnovations in this nursing course, plus our first Massive Open Online Course in astronomy, are evidence of Curtin\u2019s commitment to being a recognised international leader in research and education.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nursing students in the Pilbara are moving a step closer to increasing their qualifications through \u201cvirtual\u201d attendance at Curtin University\u2019s Bentley Campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,96],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-18156","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community","category-nursing-midwifery"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Media Contact","content":"
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