SEMO expanding online course offerings, may expand degrees

Southeast Missouri State University is offering more online courses than ever for the spring semester while marketing its current online degree programs and brainstorming choices for future online degrees.

Students have 220 online course options. The university offers 10 undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates that can be obtained purely online.

The university has been offering online a registered nurse to bachelor of science in nursing degree for the past several years and in October began using the program as pilot in an effort to market the online degree programs to more students, said Dr. Allen Gathman, the university's associate dean for online learning.

The program is for people who have their credentials as a registered nurse and want to further their qualifications to a bachelor's degree. Completion of clinical hours are required, but those can be done on-site wherever the student is working as a nurse, Gathman said. Nineteen students were added to the program for the spring, which is more than last year, Gathman said.

The university's board of regents recently approved a special fee for the program that Gathman said will help the university cover the cost of additional faculty. At the same time, fees for online programs were set at the same amount for in-state and out-of-state students, so that the university can try to draw students from outside Missouri.

"We view the online programs as a means of expanding educational opportunities without any additional costs to Missouri taxpayers," Gathman said. "We're designing programs and setting fees at a level that enables us to offer programs and cover all the costs essentially from fees."

The university wants its online degree programs to be self-supporting, Gathman said.

The university will increase marketing for other online degree programs, such as a master's degree in criminal justice, because that program has had good enrollment numbers, Gathman said. An average of 700 students seek an online undergraduate or graduate degree or certificate through the university at any given time.

The university's faculty is being tapped for direction on which areas to increase the number of online degree offerings.

"We're actually appealing to departments to think creatively about what programs they have or would like to have that they think could be offered fully online," Gathman said.

Some proposals for new online degree programs are developing, and Gathman said the university's college of business of criminal justice department faculty have shown much interest in offering more online graduate degrees.

"The college of business has been talking about a masters' in organizational management, which might be a good degree for people who have gotten into a business career while coming from a different sort of background," Gathman said.

There is already an online major in organizational administration available for an undergraduate degree in business. The university recommends the major for students who wish to pursue managerial or administrative roles in retail, finance, banking or health fields or those who seek a general business degree, according to the university's website.

eragan@semissourian.com

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