diff --git a/docs_nnx/guides/demo.md b/docs_nnx/guides/demo.md
index 1f423a77e..90bb3f867 100644
--- a/docs_nnx/guides/demo.md
+++ b/docs_nnx/guides/demo.md
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ from flax import nnx
 class Block(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, din, dout, *, rngs):
     self.linear = nnx.Linear(din, dout, rngs=rngs)
-    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dout, rngs=rngs)
+    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dout, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
 
   def __call__(self, x):
     return nnx.relu(self.bn(self.linear(x)))
diff --git a/docs_nnx/guides/performance.md b/docs_nnx/guides/performance.md
index 0c29ac815..23a898534 100644
--- a/docs_nnx/guides/performance.md
+++ b/docs_nnx/guides/performance.md
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ import optax
 class Model(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, din, dmid, dout, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     self.linear = nnx.Linear(din, dmid, rngs=rngs)
-    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, rngs=rngs)
-    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.2, rngs=rngs)
+    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
+    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.2, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
     self.linear_out = nnx.Linear(dmid, dout, rngs=rngs)
 
   def __call__(self, x):
diff --git a/docs_nnx/guides/pytree.md b/docs_nnx/guides/pytree.md
index 2c9f46caf..eee0a0b87 100644
--- a/docs_nnx/guides/pytree.md
+++ b/docs_nnx/guides/pytree.md
@@ -436,8 +436,8 @@ NNX Modules are `Pytree`s that have two additional methods for traking intermedi
 class Block(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, din: int, dout: int, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     self.linear = nnx.Linear(din, dout, rngs=rngs)
-    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dout, rngs=rngs)
-    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.1, rngs=rngs)
+    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dout, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
+    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
 
   def __call__(self, x):
     y = nnx.relu(self.dropout(self.bn(self.linear(x))))
diff --git a/docs_nnx/guides/randomness.md b/docs_nnx/guides/randomness.md
index c7955c5ba..3a3881a27 100644
--- a/docs_nnx/guides/randomness.md
+++ b/docs_nnx/guides/randomness.md
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ from flax import nnx
 class Model(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, *, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     self.linear = nnx.Linear(20, 10, rngs=rngs)
-    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1)
+    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False)
 
   def __call__(self, x, *, rngs):
     return nnx.relu(self.drop(self.linear(x), rngs=rngs))
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ Specifically, this will use the RngSteam `rngs.params` for weight initialization
 The `nnx.Dropout` module also requires a random state, but it requires this state at *call* time rather than initialization. Once again, we can pass it random state using the `rngs` keyword argument.
 
 ```{code-cell} ipython3
-dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5)
+dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5, deterministic=False)
 ```
 
 ```{code-cell} ipython3
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ Say you want to train a model that uses dropout on a batch of data. You don't wa
 class Model(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     self.linear = nnx.Linear(20, 10, rngs=rngs)
-    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1)
+    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False)
 
   def __call__(self, x, rngs):
     return nnx.relu(self.drop(self.linear(x), rngs=rngs))
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ So far, we have looked at passing random state directly to each Module when it g
 class Model(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     self.linear = nnx.Linear(20, 10, rngs=rngs)
-    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, rngs=rngs)
+    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
 
   def __call__(self, x):
     return nnx.relu(self.drop(self.linear(x)))
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ class Count(nnx.Variable): pass
 class RNNCell(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, din, dout, rngs):
     self.linear = nnx.Linear(dout + din, dout, rngs=rngs)
-    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, rngs=rngs, rng_collection='recurrent_dropout')
+    self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs, rng_collection='recurrent_dropout')
     self.dout = dout
     self.count = Count(jnp.array(0, jnp.uint32))
 
diff --git a/docs_nnx/hijax/hijax.md b/docs_nnx/hijax/hijax.md
index 6d6123022..08d4a9f35 100644
--- a/docs_nnx/hijax/hijax.md
+++ b/docs_nnx/hijax/hijax.md
@@ -153,8 +153,8 @@ print("mutable =", v_ref)
 class Block(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, din, dmid, dout, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     self.linear = Linear(din, dmid, rngs=rngs)
-    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, rngs=rngs)
-    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.1, rngs=rngs)
+    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
+    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
     self.linear_out = Linear(dmid, dout, rngs=rngs)
 
   def __call__(self, x):
diff --git a/docs_nnx/nnx_basics.md b/docs_nnx/nnx_basics.md
index f29074de7..85784fa89 100644
--- a/docs_nnx/nnx_basics.md
+++ b/docs_nnx/nnx_basics.md
@@ -96,8 +96,8 @@ The example below shows how to define a simple `MLP` by subclassing `Module`. Th
 class MLP(nnx.Module):
   def __init__(self, din: int, dmid: int, dout: int, *, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     self.linear1 = Linear(din, dmid, rngs=rngs)
-    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.1)
-    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, rngs=rngs)
+    self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.1, deterministic=False)
+    self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
     self.linear2 = Linear(dmid, dout, rngs=rngs)
 
   def __call__(self, x: jax.Array, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
diff --git a/flax/nnx/module.py b/flax/nnx/module.py
index 5944ae4ca..21e9a31be 100644
--- a/flax/nnx/module.py
+++ b/flax/nnx/module.py
@@ -444,12 +444,12 @@ def view(node: A, /, *, only: filterlib.Filter = ..., raise_if_not_found: bool =
     >>> class Block(nnx.Module):
     ...   def __init__(self, din, dout, *, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
     ...     self.linear = nnx.Linear(din, dout, rngs=rngs)
-    ...     self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5, deterministic=False)
-    ...     self.batch_norm = nnx.BatchNorm(10, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
+    ...     self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5)
+    ...     self.batch_norm = nnx.BatchNorm(10, rngs=rngs)
     ...
     >>> block = Block(2, 5, rngs=nnx.Rngs(0))
     >>> block.dropout.deterministic, block.batch_norm.use_running_average
-    (False, False)
+    (None, None)
     >>> new_block = nnx.view(block, deterministic=True, use_running_average=True)
     >>> new_block.dropout.deterministic, new_block.batch_norm.use_running_average
     (True, True)
@@ -459,7 +459,7 @@ def view(node: A, /, *, only: filterlib.Filter = ..., raise_if_not_found: bool =
     >>> new_block = nnx.view(block, only=nnx.Dropout, deterministic=True)
     >>> # Only the dropout will be modified
     >>> new_block.dropout.deterministic, new_block.batch_norm.use_running_average
-    (True, False)
+    (True, None)
 
   Args:
     node: the object to create a copy of.
diff --git a/flax/nnx/nn/normalization.py b/flax/nnx/nn/normalization.py
index a91b3e3e7..1766da5b0 100644
--- a/flax/nnx/nn/normalization.py
+++ b/flax/nnx/nn/normalization.py
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ def __init__(
     self,
     num_features: int,
     *,
-    use_running_average: bool = False,
+    use_running_average: bool | None = None,
     axis: int = -1,
     momentum: float = 0.99,
     epsilon: float = 1e-5,
@@ -364,8 +364,17 @@ def __call__(
     use_running_average = first_from(
       use_running_average,
       self.use_running_average,
-      error_msg="""No `use_running_average` argument was provided to BatchNorm
-        as either a __call__ argument, class attribute, or nnx.flag.""",
+      error_msg=(
+          'No `use_running_average` argument was provided to BatchNorm.'
+          ' Consider one of the following options:\n\n'
+          '1. Pass `use_running_average` to the BatchNorm constructor:\n\n'
+          '  self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(..., use_running_average=True/False)\n\n'
+          '2. Pass `use_running_average` to the BatchNorm __call__:\n\n'
+          '  self.bn(x, use_running_average=True/False)\n\n'
+          '3. Use `nnx.view` to create a view of the model with a'
+          ' specific `use_running_average` value:\n\n'
+          '  model_view = nnx.view(model, use_running_average=True/False)\n'
+      ),
     )
     feature_axes = _canonicalize_axes(x.ndim, self.axis)
     reduction_axes = tuple(i for i in range(x.ndim) if i not in feature_axes)
diff --git a/flax/nnx/nn/stochastic.py b/flax/nnx/nn/stochastic.py
index cea31f35e..4dcc78925 100644
--- a/flax/nnx/nn/stochastic.py
+++ b/flax/nnx/nn/stochastic.py
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ def __init__(
     rate: float,
     *,
     broadcast_dims: Sequence[int] = (),
-    deterministic: bool = False,
+    deterministic: bool | None = None,
     rng_collection: str = 'dropout',
     rngs: rnglib.Rngs | rnglib.RngStream | None = None,
   ):
@@ -117,8 +117,17 @@ def __call__(
     deterministic = first_from(
       deterministic,
       self.deterministic,
-      error_msg="""No `deterministic` argument was provided to Dropout
-          as either a __call__ argument or class attribute""",
+      error_msg=(
+          'No `deterministic` argument was provided to Dropout.'
+          ' Consider one of the following options:\n\n'
+          '1. Pass `deterministic` to the Dropout constructor:\n\n'
+          '  self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(..., deterministic=True/False)\n\n'
+          '2. Pass `deterministic` to the Dropout __call__:\n\n'
+          '  self.dropout(x, deterministic=True/False)\n\n'
+          '3. Use `nnx.view` to create a view of the model with a'
+          ' specific `deterministic` value:\n\n'
+          '  model_view = nnx.view(model, deterministic=True/False)\n'
+      ),
     )
 
     if (self.rate == 0.0) or deterministic:
diff --git a/tests/nnx/bridge/module_test.py b/tests/nnx/bridge/module_test.py
index 4f790e798..ce2c7d322 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/bridge/module_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/bridge/module_test.py
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ def test_pure_nnx_submodule(self):
     class NNXLayer(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, dim, dropout, rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(dim, dim, use_bias=False, rngs=rngs)
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(dropout, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(dropout, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.count = nnx.Intermediate(jnp.array([0.]))
       def __call__(self, x):
         # Required check to avoid state update in `init()`. Can this be avoided?
diff --git a/tests/nnx/bridge/wrappers_test.py b/tests/nnx/bridge/wrappers_test.py
index b162655d9..6d687984d 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/bridge/wrappers_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/bridge/wrappers_test.py
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ def test_nnx_to_linen_multiple_rngs(self):
     class NNXInner(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, din, dout, rngs):
         self.w = nnx.Param(nnx.initializers.lecun_normal()(rngs.params(), (din, dout)))
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
       def __call__(self, x):
         return self.dropout(x @ self.w[...])
 
@@ -423,7 +423,7 @@ def test_nnx_to_linen_pytree_structure_consistency(self):
     class NNXInner(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, din: int, dout: int, *, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
         self.w = nnx.Param(nnx.initializers.lecun_normal()(rngs.params(), (din, dout)))
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
       def __call__(self, x):
         return self.dropout(x @ self.w)
 
@@ -476,7 +476,7 @@ def __init__(self, din, dout, dropout_rate, rngs):
         self.w = nnx.Param(
           nnx.with_partitioning(nnx.initializers.lecun_normal(), sharding=('in', 'out')
                                 )(rngs.params(), (din, dout)))
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=dropout_rate, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(rate=dropout_rate, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
       def __call__(self, x):
         return self.dropout(x @ self.w)
 
diff --git a/tests/nnx/integration_test.py b/tests/nnx/integration_test.py
index 675662184..a679020cf 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/integration_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/integration_test.py
@@ -36,8 +36,8 @@ class Model(nnx.Module):
 
       def __init__(self, din, dmid, dout, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(din, dmid, rngs=rngs)
-        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, rngs=rngs)
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.2, rngs=rngs)
+        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.2, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.linear_out = nnx.Linear(dmid, dout, rngs=rngs)
 
       def __call__(self, x):
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ def loss_fn(model: Model):
     new_model = nnx.graph.view(model, use_running_average=False)
 
     for _i in range(3):
-      train_step(model, x, y)
+      train_step(new_model, x, y)
 
     assert new_model.block1.linear is new_model.block2.linear
     assert new_model.block1.linear.bias is not None
@@ -468,8 +468,8 @@ def test_example_mutable_arrays(self):
     class Model(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, din, dmid, dout, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(din, dmid, rngs=rngs)
-        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, rngs=rngs)
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.2, rngs=rngs)
+        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dmid, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.2, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.linear_out = nnx.Linear(dmid, dout, rngs=rngs)
 
       def __call__(self, x):
diff --git a/tests/nnx/nn/recurrent_test.py b/tests/nnx/nn/recurrent_test.py
index 034baff2f..9747d4ac6 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/nn/recurrent_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/nn/recurrent_test.py
@@ -589,7 +589,7 @@ def __init__(
           **kwargs,
         )
         self.recurrent_dropout = nnx.Dropout(
-          rate=dropout_rate, rng_collection='recurrent_dropout', rngs=rngs
+          rate=dropout_rate, deterministic=False, rng_collection='recurrent_dropout', rngs=rngs
         )
 
       def __call__(self, carry, x):
@@ -615,7 +615,7 @@ def __init__(
           dropout_rate=recurrent_dropout_rate,
         )
         self.lstm = nnx.RNN(cell, broadcast_rngs='recurrent_dropout')
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(dropout_rate, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(dropout_rate, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.dense = nnx.Linear(
           in_features=hidden_features, out_features=1, rngs=rngs
         )
diff --git a/tests/nnx/nn/stochastic_test.py b/tests/nnx/nn/stochastic_test.py
index 296776de0..0ef35735d 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/nn/stochastic_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/nn/stochastic_test.py
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ def test_dropout_rng_override(self):
     np.testing.assert_allclose(y1, y2)
 
   def test_dropout_arg_override(self):
-    m = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5)
+    m = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, deterministic=False)
     x = jnp.ones((1, 10))
 
     # deterministic call arg provided
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ def test_dropout_arg_override(self):
       m(x)
 
   def test_dropout_arg_override_view(self):
-    m = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5)
+    m = nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, deterministic=False)
     x = jnp.ones((1, 10))
 
     # deterministic call arg provided
diff --git a/tests/nnx/rngs_test.py b/tests/nnx/rngs_test.py
index 817198936..20e70179c 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/rngs_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/rngs_test.py
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ def test_reseed(self, graph):
     class Model(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(2, 3, rngs=rngs)
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
 
       def __call__(self, x):
         return self.dropout(self.linear(x))
diff --git a/tests/nnx/spmd_test.py b/tests/nnx/spmd_test.py
index 8680ae858..ecfce393a 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/spmd_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/spmd_test.py
@@ -259,8 +259,8 @@ def test_out_sharding_dropout(self):
       replicated_array = jnp.arange(8).reshape(2, 4).astype(jnp.float32)
       sharded_array = reshard(replicated_array, P("X", None))
       layers = [
-        nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, rngs=nnx.Rngs(0)),
-        nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, broadcast_dims=(1,), rngs=nnx.Rngs(0)),
+        nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, deterministic=False, rngs=nnx.Rngs(0)),
+        nnx.Dropout(rate=0.5, deterministic=False, broadcast_dims=(1,), rngs=nnx.Rngs(0)),
       ]
       for layer in layers:
         assert 'float32[2@X,4]' in str(jax.typeof(layer(sharded_array)))
diff --git a/tests/nnx/transforms_test.py b/tests/nnx/transforms_test.py
index 55913b147..7808dbc3f 100644
--- a/tests/nnx/transforms_test.py
+++ b/tests/nnx/transforms_test.py
@@ -2874,7 +2874,7 @@ def __init__(self, input_size, hidden_size, rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(
           hidden_size + input_size, hidden_size, rngs=rngs
         )
-        self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, rngs=rngs)
+        self.drop = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.hidden_size = hidden_size
 
       def __call__(self, carry, x) -> tuple[jax.Array, jax.Array]:
@@ -3381,7 +3381,7 @@ def test_state_axes_simple(self):
     class Block(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(2, 3, rngs=rngs)
-        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(3, rngs=rngs)
+        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(3, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
 
       def __call__(self, x: jax.Array) -> jax.Array:
@@ -3415,7 +3415,7 @@ def test_split_rngs_decorator_simple(self):
     class Block(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(2, 3, rngs=rngs)
-        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(3, rngs=rngs)
+        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(3, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
 
       def __call__(self, x: jax.Array) -> jax.Array:
@@ -3455,7 +3455,7 @@ def test_state_axes_super_simple(self):
     class Block(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(2, 3, rngs=rngs)
-        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(3, rngs=rngs)
+        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(3, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
         self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.1, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
 
       def __call__(self, x: jax.Array) -> jax.Array:
@@ -3696,8 +3696,8 @@ def test_example(self):
     class Model(nnx.Module):
       def __init__(self, din, dout, *, rngs: nnx.Rngs):
         self.linear = nnx.Linear(din, dout, rngs=rngs)
-        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5, rngs=rngs)
-        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dout, rngs=rngs)
+        self.dropout = nnx.Dropout(0.5, deterministic=False, rngs=rngs)
+        self.bn = nnx.BatchNorm(dout, use_running_average=False, rngs=rngs)
 
       def __call__(self, x):
         return nnx.relu(self.dropout(self.bn(self.linear(x))))