Baylor University is testing a new partnership that will allow students to earn course credits online from other colleges.
The university joined a program called Semester Online that will allow undergraduates to take for-credit online courses offered by partner institutions like Emory, North western, Notre Dame and Boston College. Students will be able to enroll in courses through the partnership beginning in the spring 2014 semester.
"What this does is create more opportunities for students, and we believe the rigor and quality of these courses are something we'd like to have available for them," said Elizabeth Davis, Baylor's executive vice president and provost.
"We knew that we needed to look at how we were going to deal with the ever-changing landscape and delivery method of higher education. Where should Baylor fit within all of this?"
Baylor students who take courses through the Semester Online program will not have to apply for admission at the partner universities. But students will have to pay for
the courses — at a cost of $4,200 apiece — which will count as transfer credits to Baylor.
While Davis expects that fewer than 20 students might take advantage of the Semester Online program at any given time because of the cost, Baylor wants to monitor how well students perform to decide how it eventually will proceed in its own online programming.
The program is similar in concept to MOOCs, or networks of Mass Open Online Courses taught by professors from universities across the country. MOOCs are free and do not offer transferable college credits toward degrees or certificates, but instead offer students opportunities to learn from esteemed faculty without having to apply for admission to their colleges.
Universities that have participated in or created their own open enrollment course programs range from fellow Big 12 schools, including the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oklahoma, to Ivy League universities including Harvard and Yale.
Expanded access
Though MOOCs haven't yet developed a funding model — some are considering issuing certificates for a fee when students complete a certain cluster of courses — they do offer universities a chance to expand their reach across the globe, because anyone can enroll in the classes.
Davis said while it may be a few years before Baylor professors start offering open online courses, she does think MOOCs could become a good fit for Baylor's Christian-based education if faculty members are interested in testing them out.
"We may very well want to offer a MOOC that is led by one of our seminary professors," Davis said. "MOOCs would be a great way for Baylor to be able to share our great faculty and our traditions with people who can't come to campus. But I don't see MOOCs taking over as a primary source of delivering degrees or for-credit courses."
Last fall, Davis charged the university's Teaching, Learning and Technology Committee with evaluating online and technology-enhanced instruction options for the campus. Some of the committee members and faculty involved in focus groups expressed concerns about the quality and effectiveness of online courses, as well as how well students would respond to computer-based assignments and activities.
Faculty members also had greater support for hybrid learning programs, like the social work Ph.D. pilot, that still would emphasize classroom contact paired with online instruction, especially for undergraduates.
Still, Baylor officials see online classes as a vehicle for students to earn credits while away from campus during semester or summer internships or while studying abroad.
Broad interest
And the committee discovered broader interest in developing online graduate study options. Deans of the Hankamer School of Business, George W. Truett Seminary and the Louise Herrington School of Nursing all have been mulling plans for online master's degree programs.
"There are a lot of professionals who would love to have a Baylor business graduate degree or a nursing graduate degree, but they live in another city and they just can't leave and come live on campus for two or three years because of their (work) lives," said Pattie Orr, dean of university libraries and vice president of information technology. "With an online offering, they can connect with Baylor and get a degree, so there's that outreach aspect that we would be able to have."
But Orr noted that creating online course offerings can cost millions of dollars to cover bandwidth and technology infrastructure. The learning and technology committee recommended partnering with online course providers like Academic Partnerships to develop degree programs and absorb some of the support services costs.
Math education professor Rachelle Rogers, who chairs the technology committee, said faculty members also stressed the importance of having sufficient training and support to aid professors in designing online courses or in sorting out how to effectively use technology for in-person instruction.
Professors already are learning to incorporate technology like blogging, online chats and videoconferencing into lessons. Rogers has used computer-generated animations to illustrate math problems in her classes.
The committee recommended adding at least two more technology staff members to guide faculty members.
"I certainly think it will take some front-end planning to really do it effectively and to rethink the way we do things," Rogers said. "But I also like to think, with the use of technology, that maybe we can learn to work smarter and not harder. Time will tell on that."
nnew3670ed 07 Aug, 2013
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Source: http://www.educationnews.com/2013/08/06/baylor-considering-online-courses-degree-programs/
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