Staff Writer

Augusta State University will offer its first complete online degree program in the fall, giving students an alternative to the traditional classroom setting and broadening enrollment to students outside the boundaries of Augusta.

The Web-based Master of Education in Educational Leadership is a 12-course program that students can complete in one year in front of a home computer.

It is a degree geared toward educators who want to become administrators or teachers looking to build leadership skills, said Wayne Lord, the chairman of ASUs Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling and Special Education.

The reason for 100 percent online is to reach out and expand our enrollment beyond our geography, Lord said.

Students must apply by July 20 for the Aug. 20 session and Sept. 14 for the Oct. 15 session.

Although Lord said the college has not received applications yet, he expects about 25 students per course, similar to the traditional class loads ASU has on the physical campus.

ASUs move to offer the online degree is atypical in higher education trends, even as enrollment in online courses across the country increases. The vast majority of growth in online degree programs, more than 90 percent, is coming from schools that already have an established online curriculum rather than schools such as ASU just starting to offer online degrees, according to Jeff Seaman, co-director of Babson Survey Research Group.

More than 6.1 million students nationally were taking at least one online course in the fall 2010 term, an increase of 560,000 students from the previous year, according to Seamans 2011 study Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States.

Not all higher education institutions are as interested in offering online courses, however, nor are all faculty members enthusiastic about teaching on the web.

Read the rest here:
ASU to offer first complete online degree program this fall