Foundations for Graduate Study – Week 2 Discussion: Online Learning Strategies

Foundations for Graduate Study – Week 2 Discussion: Online Learning Strategies

Foundations for Graduate Study – Week 2 Discussion: Online Learning Strategies

Week 2 Discussion: Online Learning Strategies

Completing courses in the absence of a physical classroom and frequent face-to-face contact can be challenging, even for those who are comfortable with technology and the online environment. You need to be able to plan and manage your time well, particularly since there is no structured “class time”; communicate clearly and effectively where there is no visual or nonverbal feedback; and use technology effectively. This Discussion provides you with an opportunity to think about your skills in the above areas, to explore strategies for successful online learning, and exchange strategies with your colleagues.

To prepare:

Review this Week’s assigned readings from the Walden e-Guide and the document, “Technical Tips for Learning at Walden,” in the Learning Resources.

Review this week’s media program, “Tips for Effective Online Composition and Communication.”

Think about some strategies you have used, or read about, that may be beneficial for effective planning, time management, communication, and technology use.

Consider how the strategies you have identified can contribute to being a successful online learner. Foundations for Graduate Study – Week 2 Discussion: Online Learning Strategies

NURS-6001 Foundations for Graduate Study

Week 3 Discussion: Scholarly Writing and Plagiarism

As a nurse embarking on an advanced degree, you are developing the characteristics of a scholar-practitioner, which includes strong communication skills. Writing in a scholarly manner involves supporting your thoughts with evidence from the literature and appropriately using APA.

One of the challenges of scholarly writing is paraphrasing the thoughts of others in your work. Paraphrasing, and ly citing the original author for his or her ideas, allows you to take the ideas of others, summarize them, and incorporate them into your own writing. When summarizing the ideas of others, it is important to avoid plagiarizing (copying the words and ideas of others as though they were your own). In addition to expanding your knowledge of APA, this week’s Learning Resources help you to distinguish between paraphrasing and plagiarizing.

To prepare:

Think about the sometimes subtle difference between plagiarizing and paraphrasing.

Read the following paragraphs, which were written by Patricia O’Conner:

A good writer is one you can read without breaking a sweat. If you want a workout, you don’t lift a book—you lift weights. Yet we’re brainwashed to believe that the more brilliant the writer, the tougher the going.

The truth is that the reader is always right. Chances are, if something you’re reading doesn’t make sense, it’s not your fault—it’s the writer’s. And if something you write doesn’t get your point across, it’s probably not the reader’s fault—it’s yours. Too many readers are intimidated and humbled by what they can’t understand, and in some cases that’s precisely the effect the writer is after. But confusion is not complexity; it’s just confusion. A venerable tradition, dating back to the ancient Greek orators, teaches that if you don’t know what you’re talking about, just ratchet up the level of difficulty and no one will ever know.

Don’t confuse simplicity, though, with simplemindedness. A good writer can express an extremely complicated idea clearly and make the job look effortless. But such simplicity is a difficult thing to achieve because to be clear in your writing you have to be clear in your thinking. This is why the simplest and clearest writing has the greatest power to delight, surprise, inform, and move the reader. You can’t have this kind of shared understanding if writer and reader are in an adversary relationship. (pp. 195–196)

Source: O’Conner, P. (2003). Woe is I: The grammarphobe’s guide to better English in plain English. New York: Riverhead Books.

Paraphrase this passage from O’Conner using no more than 75–100 words. Remember that paraphrasing means summarizing the essence of the original text. It does not mean creating a thesaurus-based revision of the author’s original words or copying the piece, or any part of it, word for word. For this activity, do not use any direct quotes.

Turn your paraphrase into Grammarly and Safe Assign.

Review your reports.

Review the other tools, resources, and services available to you through the Walden Writing Center that support your growth as a scholarly writer.

Consider which of these resources you find to be most useful.

Review learning resources on APA formatting rules and information within the Walden Writing Center on APA.

NURS-6001 Foundations for Graduate Study

Week 4 Discussion: Using the Walden Library

Where can you find evidence to inform your thoughts and scholarly writing? Throughout your degree program, you will use the research literature to explore ideas, guide your thinking, and gain new insights. As you search the research literature, it is important to use resources that are peer-reviewed and from scholarly journals. You may already have some favorite online resources and databases that you use or have found useful in the past. For this Discussion and this week’s Assignment, you explore databases available through the Walden Library.

Note: Review the Assignment and complete the relevant items in the To prepare section prior to engaging in the Discussion.

To prepare:

Review the information presented in the Learning Resources for using the Walden Library, searching the databases, and evaluating online resources.

Begin searching for a peer-reviewed article that pertains to your practice area and is of particular interest to you.

Identify the database that you used to search for a peer-reviewed article in your area of practice and interest.

Reflect on your experience with searching the database. Did you note any difficulties when searching for an article? What steps/strategies did you find helpful for locating a peer-reviewed article? Would this database be useful to your colleagues? Would you recommend this database?

Once you have select your peer-reviewed article, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses in terms of scholarly writing, bias, opinion, quality of evidence, and appropriateness to its target audience.

NURS-6001 Foundations for Graduate Study

Week 6 Discussion: Critical Thinking

Recall your early clinical nursing experiences—what guided your decisions? Did you practice nursing ‘by the book’? Now, consider how you make decisions today. How have your clinical experiences fostered a greater depth of knowledge and critical thinking?

This week’s Learning Resources explore skill development and levels of knowledge acquisition based on clinical experience. For example, Benner suggests that as a nurse gains more experience, knowledge and skill level increases. Nurses move from novices—making decisions based on rules—to experts who are able to see connections between actions and outcomes using critical thinking. This Discussion focuses on the role of critical thinking in nursing practice and the connection between critical thinking, clinical competence, and scholarship.

To prepare:

Review the Learning Resources focusing on critical thinking and Benner’s interpretation of the Novice to Expert theory.

Reflect on how critical thinking is used in clinical practice. How does critical thinking relate to, or support, clinical competence?

What critical thinking strategies do you use to improve your clinical competence and thus move from novice to expert?

Consider the connection between critical thinking, nursing practice, and scholarship Walden NURS 6001 All Weeks Discussions