This article has been updated since it's original publication. Ball State offers about 1,100 online classes each year on average. It offers about 50 academic programs online.
Ball State is looking ahead to a new strategic plan and a new definition of education, including more immersive and distance-learning opportunities.
That's not to say the university wants to abandon traditional learning in the classroom. Ball State is looking to expand the continuum of learning, Phil Repp, vice president for Information Technology, said.
"I think the more and richer the experience, the better," Repp said. "There's a plateful of interesting content. You've got to organize it, structure it and put it in the right order. It depends on the educational experience you're trying to achieve."
At one end of this model is experiential learning, including internships, cooperative and immersive projects. At the other end is asyncronous, or distance, learning. In the center is traditional classroom learning.
The Ball State Education of the Future Task Force, led by Repp and Susan Tancock, has been looking at ways to improve the educational experience at Ball State. Its goal is to identify ways to brand the university as a unique educational institution among its competitors, community colleges and online, for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix and Harrison College.
Senior landscape architecture student Brian Main serves on the task force. He said he wishes a group like this was created years ago so he could reap the benefits before he graduated.
"Online classes are seen as secondary quality to an actually classroom, but the idea is that in the next 15 years, it'll rival in-class learning," he said. "The question is, how can Ball State brand its classes when competing with online?"
One way to help the university stand out is by offering more online opportunities for non-traditional students, said Jennifer Bott, who leads the Growing Online Education Task Force. Offering more classes online would help Ball State graduate more students in four years and receive more state funding.
"If we had more of an online presence, students wouldn't fall behind," she said. "There are plenty of markets we could tap into — people coming back to get their degree or people in the military."
The most popular programs for online enrollment at Ball State are teaching, nursing and coaching, but the task force isn't interested in specific programs. Its job is to look into how professors can modify their way of teaching for online, moving from a week-by-week curriculum to objective-based learning, for example, Botts said.
The force is also looking to offer more services online, such as tutoring and Career Center information.
"We're trying to create that Ball State community for a student that may never come to campus," Bott said.
The group of distance learners is growing. Enrollment has increased by 20 percent each year, said Joanna Wallace, dean of the School of Extended Education.
On-campus students are welcome to take online courses, she said, but there is a tuition imbalance. Students who want to take classes online will have to pay more for those courses. The Tuition Task Force is looking into making the cost more uniform, Wallace said.
Both the Education of the Future Task Force and the Growing Online Education Task Force will make recommendations to President Jo Ann Gora and Provost Terry King in the spring. Their findings will likely influence the new strategic plan. The current plan expires at the end of the year.
Ball State offers about 1,100 online courses each year, and most of them are graduate courses. The university offers about 50 academic programs online. About 6,800 students are enrolled in online classes this school year.
"We are moving more undergraduate courses online, but that's not to take away from on-campus courses," Wallace said. "For students who are coming back to college, we hope they finish their degree at Ball State."
By the numbers:
6,800 - approximate number of students enrolled in online classes this year
50 - approximate number of online programs offered through Ball State
1,100- approximate number of online courses offered through Ball State each year
20 percent - rate that distance education is growing each year in terms of registration
Read More
Victims and survivors of sexual assault share their stories at ‘Take Back the Night’ event
By Maya Kim / 1 hours agoThe ‘Take Back the Night’ event provided information about the history of sexual assault and what resources are available to Ball State students.
Spring donation drive
By Amelia Winter / 2 days agoBrand-new spring donation drive to help international students at Ball State University.
Late Nite preparing for annual carnival
By Evan Shotts / 2 days agoNight of April 19th marks the annual carnival put on by Ball State’s Late Nite association.
