The Specific Aims of the project will be to:

1. Identify, organize and customize access to important informational and professional resources . We will streamline access to educational materials along with other nursing and health care information.
2. Develop a space in a 3-dimensional chat environment to support the nurses needs for information, professional development and other resources.
3. Evaluate the 3-dimensional chat environment as a tool to enhance learner confidence bolster professionalization and diminish learning quality barriers encountered by faculty, distance learners, commuting students working professionals.
4. Create a methodology to analyze the use of the environment.

We will determine that a virtual 3-dimensional environment can be utilized to improve the quality of the distance learners', commuters' and working nurses' learning experience.

Background and Significance:

It is our belief that this research project is one of the first attempts to analyze the use of a virtual 3-dimensional chat environment to support the efforts of distance learning programs and the academic needs of students enrolled in a professional level of nursing and related healthcare education. This research project will demonstrate that a virtual 3-dimensional chat environment can be utilized to enhance information access, instruction and provide research information for greater support to the Department of Nursing’s faculty, distance learners, commuting students and the larger professional nursing community. It is anticipated that the findings of the project will demonstrate that this environment can foster a greater awareness of educational and informational resources by promoting socialization and professionalization for in our local nursing community and worldwide. We hope the project will facilitate greater communication between nursing professionals, faculty, students and librarians. The researchers anticipate that enhanced learner confidence and professionalization will be achieved through the additional support offered within the virtual world.

Furthermore, We believe that the outcomes from the project will provide a realistic understanding of the virtual environment's future use as an instructional delivery platform for nursing and related health care information and education. It will be used to reach out to Eastern University distance learners, commuters and the extended nursing and health care community. We expect to find indications that the weaknesses disclosed by other studies concerning distance learning and distance reference can be addressed by the creation of an immersive virtual social environment, a learning commons for nurses.

In creating the environment, we will integrate digital resources that come from a variety of services to create tailored views and customized access to a variety of resources. For example; a cardiac care unit in a planned virtual hospital environment would include streaming video of surgery or resuscitation procedures along with links to relevant information resources. In addition, a virtual nursing home environment would contain access to relevant journal and research articles and other materials on geriatric or long term care. Furthermore, a librarian facilitator, faculty member, student or other professional would be available to render real time assistance to the learner through text chat or using voice of the internet protocol (VOIP) as they work within a contextualized virtual world.

We also see the construction of a virtual medical library as a place where nurses can browse and communicate with others, including librarians, on the use of its resources. We hope to reduce the barriers of time and distance in order to support the professional nursing community’s informational needs.

Finally, the nursing community will be involved in every phase in building this resource. They will contribute their expertise toward the creation of information buildings and centers. Nurses worldwide along with Eastern University faculty, librarians, staff, students and alumnae will be invited to help create the Virtual Learning Commons.