Innovations in Education and Teaching International Vol. 45, No. 2, May 2008, 155–167 ISSN 1470-3297 print/ISSN 1470-3300 online © 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14703290801950369 http://www.informaworld.com Learning from experience: an evaluation of an external nursing course in regional Australia Kim Foster a *, Kim Usher a , Lauretta Luck b , Nikki Harvey a and David Lindsay a a School of Nursing, Midwifery and Nutrition, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia; b School of Nursing, University of Western Sydney, Australia Taylor and Francis Ltd RIIE_A_295202.sgm 10.1080/14703290801950369 Innovations in Education and Teaching International 1470-3297 (print)/1470-3300 (online) Original Article 2008 Taylor & Francis 45 2 000000May 2008 Dr. KimberlyFoster kim.foster@jcu.edu.au The delivery of pre-registration Bachelor of Nursing courses in Australia has primarily been through the traditional on-campus mode. The development and implementation of an external course mode necessitates pedagogical reflection on a number of delivery, design, implementation, and consequently evaluation, processes. This paper discusses one aspect of the course evaluation process of a pre-registration nursing course offered by the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Nutrition at James Cook University in regional Australia. Course feedback was obtained from 26 respondents through an exit survey which used both quantitative and qualitative questions. While the majority of students were satisfied with the content of subjects, written course material, the use of email and Web-based delivery of subjects, a number of respondents were less satisfied with access to staff and experienced difficulties with the financial costs of the course. Generally, however, respondents indicated they had gained a number of personal, academic and professional benefits through completing the course. Introduction Since the move of nursing to the tertiary sector in Australia in the mid-1980s, pre-registration nursing courses have mostly been delivered as on-campus programmes of study. From the late 1990s there have been a number of Schools of Nursing, both nationally and internationally, that have developed distance nursing programmes (DeBourgh, 2003; Kennedy & Duffy, 2004; Tollef- son, Usher, Crocker, & Morrissey, 2003; Yorke, 2004). As part of a regional university, the School of Nursing Midwifery and Nutrition at James Cook University (JCU) services a large geographical area that primarily includes northern Queensland, the Torres Strait region and parts of northern Australia. In 1997, in response to requests from rural service providers for an external course, the School converted its undergraduate degree to a distance mode format. This would offer people working as unqualified health workers, Aboriginal health workers, and enrolled nurses, access to a registered nurse programme, thus creating a local, professional education path- way not previously available. The decision also took into account other regional concerns such as recognition of the paucity of opportunity for women in rural areas to study a professional course such as nursing, and the need to increase the number of qualified health professionals available to work in rural and remote areas. The externalised programme was developed to comprise the same subjects and sequences as the internal course, but its delivery was modified so that it was offered as a part-time course over six years. There are 10 weeks of residential school in the six-year programme. These residential schools offer an opportunity for laboratory experience and face-to-face tutorials in order to complement theoretical learning, enhance competency development, and provide vital face-to- face opportunities for the students and academic staff. The students also undertake 22 weeks of * Corresponding author. Email: kim.foster@jcu.edu.au