Hello, my name is Victoria Brahe and I am a nurse completing a PhD in Education at Capella University. The research for my dissertation involves students’ use of informal communities in online RN-BSN degree programs.
Informal communities include friendships that develop when sharing online courses with classmates who provide socio-emotional and academic support. Communication may take place via e-mail, instant messaging, telephone, blogs, micro-blogs (e.g., Twitter, Pownce), wikis, virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life), social bookmarking (e.g., Diigo, Delicious, StumbleUpon), multi-media (e.g., YouTube, flickr, Skype), or social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning).
If you are:
1. Enrolled in a fully online RN-BSN degree program,
2. Participating in an informal community with other students in the same online program, and
3. Willing to participate in a 20-30 minute telephone interview,
I would like to speak with you.
By participating in the telephone interview, you will provide information to help me understand how students use informal communities in online RN-BSN degree programs.
The telephone interview will take approximately 30 minutes. All the information shared by you will be held in strict confidence, and there will be no personal connection identified in the report. A follow-up interview to clarify points may or may not be necessary. Participants will receive a $25 gift card from Amazon.com for his or her time and sharing of experiences.
If you would like to participate in this research, please send me an e-mail at victoriabrahe@capellauniversity.edu and very briefly tell me about your informal community. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions, and to forward this post to other students that are in an online RN-BSN degree program who might be interested in participation.
Thank you for your consideration. Victoria.
This study has been approved by Capella University, IRB 212556-1, effective from February 17, 2011 to February 17, 2012.
