A Case Study: Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills in an Online Health Care Ethics Course

This case study describes the journey of revising an online health care ethics course in an accelerated nursing program. The primary goal was to incorporate additional opportunities for fostering critical thinking along with updating the course design to reflect the university’s standard of academic rigor. This required health care ethics course has been known to be challenging from the student’s perspective, due not only to the volume of the work involved, but also to the inclusion of sensitive topics that are addressed such as beginning of life issues and whistle-blowing. The revisions, constructed from student feedback, were aimed at stimulating critical thinking, providing spaces for reflection, and adding engaging activities that could solidify concept acquisition while reducing both redundancy and temptations to participate in academic dishonesty.