“Christian colleges flourish in distance learning environment” plus 3 more |
- Christian colleges flourish in distance learning environment
- Walden University Offers Individual Courses for Adult Learners
- Daniels signs order creating new online university
- Online classes clicking with students
| Christian colleges flourish in distance learning environment Posted: 14 Jun 2010 11:10 AM PDT
| "Given the relatively strong religious character of much of the U.S. population, and an ever more crowded online market, the schools that that are faith-based in some strong sense" have an advantage over others, the majority of whom have built "more generic programs that don't have any strong affiliation with a demographic group or belief system," says Richard Garrett, an online learning analyst for the consulting group Eduventures. Investing heavily in online has already allowed some institutions to enroll many more students than they ever could have hoped to at a physical campus. Grand Canyon University, which enrolled about 3,500 students at its peak as a traditional university in the mid-1990s, was forced to reinvent itself as a for-profit online university earlier this decade after coming close to financial ruin. Now it serves 36,000 students, about 90% of whom are distance learners.
Grand Canyon is not the only Christian institution taking cues from the for-profit sector in an effort to maximize the market for online education. Indiana Wesleyan University years ago enlisted a subsidiary of the Apollo Group, the company that owns the for-profit juggernaut University of Phoenix, to help with online recruitment. That subsidiary, an online-education consulting firm called the Institute for Professional Development, has 17 other higher-education partners, most of them Christian institutions. More recently, the Mid-America Christian University recruited Maurice (Buddy) Shoe, an Apollo Group alumnus and expert in for-profit higher education, to serve as vice president for enrollment. Shoe says the university is using an aggressive marketing strategy to try to grow the 80%-online student body from its current 1,200 enrollment to 5,000 over the next five years. Meanwhile, online enrollment at the nonprofit Liberty University has boomed to 45,000 — nearly twice as many online students as the 25,000 that its late televangelist founder, Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr., prescribed as a goal only three years ago, and significantly more than its 12,000 or so on-campus learners. "More and more Christian schools I know through connections, if they're not already doing (online education), they're talking about it," says Shoe, the Mid-America enrollment executive. "And the market's demanding it." The combination of America's religious character, its large and well-organized evangelical population, its sophisticated online education market, and the big-tent approach to Christian education taken by many of its faith-based universities has set the stage for rapid expansion of Christian-oriented distance learning, says Garrett, whose firm has worked with universities such as Liberty and Mid-America on their online strategies. All of this is exciting for evangelicals, says Carlos Campo, the incoming president of Regent University, an institution in Virginia founded by the televangelist and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson that boasts 4,900 students, about 55% of whom are online. "I think that evangelicals tend, very often, to look at numbers as being important," Campo says. Being able to increase the number of Christian-educated graduates in the world via the scale afforded by online education, he says, is cause for enthusiasm in many evangelical circles. The expansion of Christian online learning might be of particular interest to families that are leery of the secular education provided by the nation's public schools, Campo says. "There's a built-in market of folks who say, 'Is there someone in the virtual sphere where I can send my child where they can transition directly from a home-schooled environment into a collegiate environment and never leave the home?' " he says. Hard to replicate online? But to what degree can a Christian university actually foster the same religious character in its online students as it can in its residential students? The task is not as daunting as it was even five years ago, says Kathy Player, the president of Grand Canyon University. "Nowadays, with technology, you can bring in so much of what you do (on campus)," she says. For example, Grand Canyon offers its online students Bible study sessions with a chaplain through its learning-management system. It also streams its chapel services, as do many similar institutions. They also often pepper their learning portals with inspirational passages from scripture, and provide channels for online students to submit prayer requests from their fellow students. Institutions that require faculty to sign a statement of faith and instruct them to teach various subjects through the prism of Christianity tend to require the same of their online instructors. Regent University offers special training to its online faculty on how to replicate a Christianity-flavored course in an online environment. Weaving a Christian perspective into the fabric of course design is not unique to Regent, nor is it limited to religious studies courses. While some students attend faith-based institutions to study religious philosophy, many are studying the same subjects as their peers at nonreligious institutions (degrees in business, marketing, and health care are among the most popular at a number of Christian institutions, as elsewhere). But the point of a Christian college education is not to pray before and after class while doing everything else the same, Campo says; it is to make Christian identity part of the way subjects are taught. There is also the extracurricular component, which online Christian universities are also working to replicate. Liberty University offers online Bible studies through its online ministry — as well as links to Christian-themed articles offering counsel on non-academic subjects such as marriage, personal finance, "purity," and "cultural issues." Indiana Wesleyan University's online learning portal includes links to external, Christian life-management sites such as Christianity Today, Purpose Driven Connection, and Crosswalk.com. But Campo, the incoming Regent University president, says that replicating the ethos of a faith-based campus in a distance-learning context has been difficult. Regent uses a metric it calls a "spirituality index" to measure the spiritual health of its students on campus and online by tracking how well they are attaining their spiritual goals. While the index is too new to have produced any conclusive data, "Our anecdotal sense is that we're not doing as well in that environment," Campo says. "I think that's where college presidents at Christian schools have real concerns," he says, citing conversations with other Christian college officials with respect to their own observations about the spiritual vitality of their online students relative to traditional ones. However, Campo says Regent and its peers remain committed to trying to replicate the Christian college experience online, and are optimistic about their ability to do so as new strategies are formulated and online learning environments become more robust. "We don't want to be left out of the conversation," he says. "So making sure that we are duplicating … the virtual environment what we have on campus, that's a critical goal." Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Walden University Offers Individual Courses for Adult Learners Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:46 PM PDT
MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- (Marketwire) -- 06/14/10 -- Walden University is making hundreds of individual courses from nearly all of its degree programs available to working professionals and other adult learners who want to continue their education online. Walden's online courses provide a convenient opportunity for prospective students to meet their immediate educational needs, including enhancing their knowledge and updating their skills. Popular areas of study include counseling and social services, education, engineering, general education, health sciences, management, nursing, psychology, public policy and administration, and technology. Students who choose to enroll in an individual course at Walden University will have the opportunity to study at an accredited university with 40 years of experience providing distance education. They will enjoy access to quality faculty, an engaging learning environment, and the exceptional student services that define the Walden experience. Interested students can register for courses throughout the year and ultimately may be able to transfer the academic credit they earn to a Walden degree program or to another higher education institution. Some courses may also satisfy requirements for earning or renewing a license, credential, or certification in a particular field. For more information about this individual course program for adult learners, visit www.WaldenU.edu/individual-courses. About Walden University: For 40 years, Walden University has supported working professionals in achieving their academic goals and making a greater impact in their professions and their communities. Today, more than 42,500 students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries are pursuing their bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degrees at Walden. The accredited online university provides students with an engaging educational experience that connects them with expert faculty and peers around the world. Walden is the flagship online university in the Laureate International Universities network -- a global network of more than 50 online and campus-based universities in 21 countries. Walden offers more than 45 degree programs with more than 195 specializations and concentrations. Areas of study include health sciences, counseling, human services, management, psychology, education, public health, nursing, public administration, technology, and engineering. For more information, visit www.WaldenU.edu. Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association; visit www.ncahlc.org to learn more. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Daniels signs order creating new online university Posted: 14 Jun 2010 11:35 AM PDT INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana has a new partnership with an accredited online university, a collaboration designed to expand access to higher education for Hoosiers. The partnership, called WGU Indiana, was announced Friday by Gov. Mitch Daniels. The partnership involves the state and Western Governors University. WGU Indiana is a branch of Western Governors University, a nonprofit, online, competency-based university that offers accredited bachelor's and master's degrees in business, teacher education, information technology and health professions, including nursing. "WGU Indiana will fill the clearest and most challenging gap remaining in our family of higher education opportunities, helping thousands of adult Hoosiers attain the college degrees they've wanted and needed, on a schedule they can manage, at a cost they can afford," said Daniels, who signed an executive order to establish WGU Indiana. The online university will be established with support from the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It will operate independent of direct state funding and be self-sustaining based on tuition, according to the governor's office. Tuition is about $6,000 per year for most degree programs, and Indiana state and federal financial aid are available. For more information, see: indiana.wgu.edu. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Online classes clicking with students Posted: 14 Jun 2010 06:50 AM PDT More and more, college classes are moving outside the brick and mortar building and toward a virtual offering. Western Nebraska Community College officials say students and teachers are embracing online courses for their offerings. Garry Alkire, dean of student services, estimates 65 percent of students enrolled in summer classes are taking courses online. "That was not the case five years ago," he said. As degree options increase, college officials said online courses are increasing in popularity. It's a trend seen not only on the national level but locally as well. Students seeking degrees in business administration, management information systems, accounting and business technology courses can fully complete a degree online, Marsha Blackburn, division chair of office/business and information technologies, said. The college also has online offerings that allow students seeking to transfer business courses or two-year job readiness programs for those wanting to enter directly into the workforce. Information technology is one area that WNCC has been moving forward in, bringing nearly all of its 11 courses into online offerings, including nationally-recognized programs like Microsoft training. WNCC has been offering health information management systems courses online for about four years now. General education courses are also offered online through the college. Tutoring is available online for students as well. The programs are driven not only by the desires, but also the needs of students, Blackburn said. "We had a lot of working people who were taking classes at night or over their lunch hours," she said. "Through online courses, we are able to give them another option so that they can still take courses in person or online." Sometimes, students find day-to-day life getting in the way of taking traditional courses. They need to get into the work force and are unable to attend classes because they have moved to another community or time commitments. Online courses allow more flexibility. With WNCC having three campuses within western Nebraska, online courses also help increase offerings to students so that they do not have to be "site bound," Terry Gaalwsyk, vice-president of educational services said, Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Yahoo! News Search Results for online education degree To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment