Her online students are out of sight, but never out of mind

It’s the third Silver Circle for Catherine Tredway, director of the College of Nursing’s RN-BSN Online Degree Completion Program. Photo: Jessica Jeys

2013 Silver Circle Award

Since 1966, the Silver Circle has been presented to some of UIC’s best teachers. What makes the award especially meaningful is its selection committee: the graduating seniors.

Catherine Tredway
Clinical instructor
Quad City Regional Program
College of Nursing

Catherine Tredway’s students may be out of sight, but never out of mind.

Tredway is program director of the College of Nursing’s RN-BSN Online Degree Completion Program, where students can advance their nursing careers via the computer.

“Our students receive the same high-quality education as students who sit in a classroom,” Tredway says.

The students, who are registered nurses, have access to educational resources, library services and faculty, staff and classmates at any time, Tredway adds.

The program helped put UIC in the top 20 nationwide for online learning, according to a recent survey by U.S. News and World Report.

The Quad Cities Regional Program began offering the RN-BSN program in a traditional classroom setting more than 32 years ago. As technology grew, distance learning classes were offered to students, allowing them to learn through video conferencing.

Today, the regional program uses both online courses and video conferencing in its graduate-level courses. The RN-BSN program, 100 percent online, has produced nearly 150 graduates since it began in 2008.

The program is a collaboration between the College of Nursing and UIC Online in the School of Continuing Studies. The college manages the curriculum and instruction, while UIC Online provides the infrastructure and online delivery.

“It’s easy to be an award-winning teacher when you have UIC Online doing all the hard work,” Tredway says. “It’s important for our students to feel connected, and UIC Online does a fabulous job of this, from a student’s initial inquiry through graduation.”

Most students hail from Illinois, but as more states are adding new requirements for nursing education, they are searching for high-quality curriculums such as the College of Nursing’s online program, Tredway said.

“We have students from states as close as Missouri and as far away as Massachusetts, and we are receiving numerous inquiries from New York,” she says.

Tredway, a UIC faculty member for 16 years, has won many teaching honors; this is her third Silver Circle.

“It’s easy to be a good instructor when you have the type of students we have at UIC,” she says.