The purpose of this pilot study was to examine predictors of improvement in critical thinking skills among online graduate nursing students in a graduate nursing research course. Thirty-five students who had taken an online Nursing research course within the prior 12 months and who were currently enrolled in the online graduate Nursing program at Drexel University were sent a link to complete a survey via "survey monkey" ( which is an online data depository) by an honest broker at the University. Time spent in graduate school, course satisfaction, and whether or not a student felt supported were all predictive of improved critical thinking skills in the students. "Connectedness" (within the course, classroom, with the instructor and within the group) remained to be the highest predictor of whether or not students felt their critical thinking skills improved.