Course collaboration

Thanks to today's technology, several universities around the state are collaborating to offer students expanded course offerings.

Last spring, Southeast Missouri State University worked with the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg to offer a foreign language class. The collaboration expanded this fall with five schools offering six courses in economics, foreign language and physics to students at Southeast and eight other universities. In the near future, courses in agriculture, environmental science and education will be added, according to Southeast provost Dr. Ron Rosati.

Students who wish to take these courses pay the university at which they are enrolled. Southeast students, for example, would pay the same amount for one of the expanded course offerings as they would a regular online course at the university. Grades are determined by the instructor at the university where the course is offered and sent to the university where the student is enrolled. This fall, 224 students across the state took advantage of this option.

This model appears to be an innovative approach to education, the kind necessary to survive in a competitive world. We're pleased that Southeast and the other universities have pursued this option and are continuing to build upon it.