This summer, the college will provide more opportunities than ever before for students to enroll in online courses.
"This will be our largest online course offering ever," said Savi Iyer, associate dean of the college and director of summer sessions. Summer online courses were first offered in summer 2008.
This summer, there are 25 scheduled online courses across 11 departments. The School of Education and psychology department are offering the widest selection of online courses. Other departments, such as political science and communications, are offering online courses for the first time.
Each course is expected to enroll between 15 and 20 students, but must have at least 12 in order to be offered. Courses run during the same sessions as on-campus summer courses and carry the same tuition.
The online course selection has been expanded in part to compete with the offerings of other colleges, but there are still no online courses offered during the academic year. "It's something we do want to do in the future, but we're currently unable to," Iyer said.
The college has been working in coordination with Computing and Information Technology to provide the courses, which will run through the myCourses interface. The course format is typically attractive to students who do not have the time to attend a traditional on-campus class.
Material for courses is of fered in digital format. Timed assignments typically must be completed within 24 hours since students may be taking the course from different time zones.
"The students are definitely interested in these courses, but the biggest problems we have are in providing technical support for the students who need it," Iyer said. CIT will therefore offer support during normal operating hours.
The professors teaching the online courses are mostly full-time faculty. Provost Carol Long will be teaching an online course in British Literature, and said her mission is to lead by example and encourage a more comprehensive online course offering.
A full list of course offerings is available at the Web site for the Dean of the College; students can register through KnightWeb.