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Online courses open new opportunities for college education
College close to home.
It's been one of the most appealing and important advantages of community colleges throughout the years.
McCook Community College spotlighted several successful graduates during last year's 80th anniversary of the founding of Nebraska's first junior college, and they shared at least one view in common:
Praise for the quality of the education they received and the instructors who delivered it.
Now the college and its parent, the Mid Plains Community College area, is poised to take those advantages one step farther.
At an exit briefing last Tuesday, two Higher Learning Commission Consultant/Evaluators said they planned to recommend MPCC be permitted to offer complete online programs.
"This approval will allow students throughout the MPCC 20,000-square-mile service area to complete an associate's degree program entirely online and never physically set foot on any of the many MPCC campuses," said Dr. Michael Chipps, president of MPCC. "Now students in our service area who are place-bound will have the opportunity to complete a degree, and we are excited about offering online degree programs for our current and prospective students," he said.
Online offerings are nothing new; the first were offered in 2001, and 189 were enrolled in 13 online classes by 2004. This spring, the college is offering 53 online classes with enrollments of more than 800 students, an increase of 325 percent, according to Pat Allison, area vice president for educational services and student development.
And they're not restricted to the Mid-Plains area; soldiers in Iraq are among students around the world who already have taken online classes from MPCC.
Given the go-ahead, expected in time for the Spring 2008 term, the college can tie all those offerings together, along with complete online admissions, registration, purchase of supplies and textbooks, receive online advising and tutoring, and everything else required to complete a degree.
In addition to the current AA degree in library technical assistant, MPCC?will initially add an Associate of Arts Degree, Associate of Applied Science degree in business, and an AAS in business technology with three areas of emphasis: administrative assistant, medical and legal.
We've always felt that too many residents take McCook Community College for granted, and not enough of us take advantage of the opportunity to complete a degree.
Now, thanks to high-speed Internet available throughout Southwest Nebraska, even those who are unable to move or commute to McCook can receive a college education.
Once MPCC?gets its full line of online courses up and running, there will be even fewer excuses not to go for that degree.