SFA distance education enables students to achieve degrees
November 16, 2009
Following the birth of her daughter, Heather Morton was sure that in order to be a stay-at-home mom, she would have to postpone working on her elementary education degree. But, then, one of her former teachers told her about a series of programs Stephen F. Austin State University offers to enable junior and senior level students to complete their degrees through online courses.
"A lot of students will have an associate's degree or freshman and sophomore credits, and they just need to complete their degree in one way or another," said Randy McDonald, director of the SFA Office of Instructional Technology. "Sometimes a student may only be lacking a course or two, or maybe they almost completed their degree, but then moved away or transferred into the military; this is a way for those students to complete their degrees."
SFA currently offers six undergraduate degree completion programs that range from elementary education to agriculture. McDonald said some of the programs, like the two for elementary education, require a student to participate in what would be the equivalent of lab work, but it's not an everyday thing.
Morton explained that a typical school day for her will entail waking up a couple hours before her daughter does in order to work on assignments, and then spend the day with her daughter until her husband comes home, when she can turn back to her school work for a few more hours.
"It's very convenient," she said.
Likewise, the online format enabled Lori Logsdon, a resident of Angleton, to work toward completing her elementary education degree, while she continued to maintain her full-time job.
Logsdon said she came across the program through the Texas Education Agency Web site and chose the online route because it allowed her to work and go to school full-time.
"As a student returning to school after many years, it's important for me to complete my degree and certification in a reasonable amount of time, and SFA's online route allows that," she said.
Logsdon said a typical day for her will entail checking her courses before she goes to work in the morning, and then using time during the day to make sure she has resources, assignments, etc, that she can work on later. In the evening, she reads, watches lectures, does her assignments and participates in chats.
"For me, this program is a perfect fit and a way to fulfill a very long-time goal of obtaining teacher certification," Logsdon said. "I'm truly thankful to SFA and Mrs. Barber (an online instructor) for this outstanding program."
In addition to the undergraduate degree completion programs, SFA also offers eight graduate degree programs that can be obtained completely online.
"We've found what is most beneficial to students is when you can develop a complete program online," McDonald said. He said by having the courses completely online, a student who lives in another part of the state is more likely to enroll at SFA than if the university only offered a few courses of study online.
"The more you put online, the more chances there are that a student can take the whole program, and then if they do, that means more enrollments for SFA and more success for the student," he said.
McDonald said one of the things the school looks at when deciding which degrees should become an online program is if all the classes required have the ability to be instructed online. He said they look at the requirements for each class on campus to determine if it can be made into an online format.
"We also look at competition, if a degree is going to be popular, and if it's in high demand," he said. "We base that on just observing the market and what our students are telling us. If we get a lot of requests from students on a program they would like to see go online, then we start to think about it."
The faculty, as well, plays a part in the decision-making process, McDonald said.
He said online instructors go through a specified training for Web instruction.
"We have a computer lab set aside here for faculty training," McDonald said. "They have hands-on workshops to learn how to use the computer software used for online courses. And (the computer lab allows students) to develop some of the skills and have an online experience, where they benefit from learning more from the instructional design and how to use technology skills to teach a class."
Since SFA announced its first online program in 2001 - a post baccalaureate initial certification program designed for students with a bachelor's degree who wanted to obtain teaching certification - distance education has grown.
Total enrollments in online classes for the fall semester surpassed 5,000, an increase of 38 percent from the same time last year. Approximately one out of four SFA students take an online course, and beginning next semester, students will have another choice in the undergraduate completion programs the school offers.
McDonald said his department has been approved for a special education completion program, which will launch in January 2010.
"We're also working toward online programs in a secondary education graduate program," he said, adding he could not release the particulars on it yet.
McDonald said distance education courses help to make higher education more accessible to more students.
"It helps students overcome the barriers of not only distance, but time and other constraints," he said.
To find out more on the undergraduate completion programs and graduate degree programs offered online, visit www.sfaonline.sfasu.edu.