Introduction

Provision of educational services in higher nursing education levels, including pre- licensure and continuing nurse education have continuously been impacted over the years by the utilization of innovative technologies in the pedagogy. The usage of technological advances and the existing shortage of nursing professionals greatly facilitated the introduction of distance learning in nursing education. This was aimed at increasing the percentage of nurse enrollment and thus controlling the shortage. This paper aims to highlight the evolution of nursing distance education for the pre-licensure and continuing learning programs.

Zawacki-Richter, & Anderson (2014) note that distance education (DE) in nursing took effect in the mid-1990s when teaching institutions and professionals noticed the explosion in its provision in other academic disciplines and, also following clues from many higher education organizations. Consequently, nursing education began to incorporate technological application into the learning process through the introduction of power-point presentations to replace the then used overhead projectors as well as the increased utilization of email as a mode of communication. The Council of Regional Accrediting Commission (CRAC) then proposed the best practices for e-learning degrees and certificates (Southard, & Mooney, 2015). They were also followed by the Alliance for Nursing’s Accreditation Statement on Distance Education Policies (n.d.), which highlighted that it is important for nursing schools offering distance education programs to meet standards applied by on-campus programs.