PETIT JEAN MOUNTAIN -- The first faculty retreat for the University of Arkansas System's new online-only eVersity focused on new ways of structuring degree programs and how online courses can help more people advance toward their goals.
Far from echoing concerns about the eVersity concept expressed in faculty resolutions at University of Arkansas campuses in Fayetteville and Little Rock, most of the 29 faculty members at the retreat Wednesday voiced enthusiasm for the new venture that's expected to begin offering classes next fall.
"I'm surprised that the system hasn't done this by now because it is something that as colleagues we can work together and offer more students in Arkansas and even beyond the opportunity to earn their education," said Tosha Bradley, a faculty member at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.
Bradley spoke during a round of introductions in the first session of a two-day workshop at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain near Morrilton. The UA System solicited faculty members from each of its campuses to attend. Each is to receive a $3,000 stipend, plus lodging and travel costs.
By the end of the workshop, the group is expected to have drafted outlines for student study options -- ranging from a technical certificate up through a master's degree -- in four areas: business, criminal justice, health care management and information technology.
In an interview, Michael Moore, the UA System's vice president for academic affairs, said a "general studies" degree option will also be offered by the eVersity.
Moore addressed the group at the beginning of the retreat, detailing his vision for the online-only college as a way to help people who had earlier left college without attaining degrees.
"For whatever reason, life got in the way," Moore said, adding that according to the Lumina Foundation for Education more than 330,000 Arkansans had taken some college courses but hadn't received degrees. The foundation has said that three out of every 10 adults in Arkansas ages 25-64 have earned two-year degrees or higher, a figure lower than the four in 10 average nationally.
"There is a group of people out there that desperately needs access to a different form of education," Moore said.
He said Arkansans already are turning to online education in large numbers, with more than 14,000 enrolled in various online colleges, a number that equates to the second-largest enrollment at any higher-education institution in Arkansas, other than UA-Fayetteville.
To meet state minimum core curriculum standards, eVersity will offer only a few courses compared with the many offerings on UA campuses, Moore said.
"That's the way we're going to be able to control costs," Moore said, telling faculty members that that will help students. "We're going to be able to provide clear pathways for students by eliminating choice."
A course on quantitative literacy -- "the ability to read charts and tables, interpret data," Moore said -- will fulfill state math requirements, while astronomy was chosen to help fulfill a science requirement because it is "very approachable," Moore said. He emphasized that the eVersity will embed remedial material as needed into offerings rather than offer separate remedial courses.
He said the eVersity has chosen to fulfill social science requirements through two courses, one on logic and critical thinking, and another on ethical decision-making.
"Those will be things that appeal to employers and be very, very marketable," Moore said.
Faculty members at the retreat were not working on details about those courses, but drafting degree plans that would later need approval from a separate eVersity body that has yet to be appointed. Moore encouraged them to include certificates for students to earn along the way to attaining bachelor's degrees as a means of motivating them to finish their studies.
During introductions, a few faculty members said they had experience designing online courses. Some said they had started college later in life. Roughly half raised their hands when Moore asked how many had been first-generation college students.
Some spoke about how education is evolving.
"This is the future of education, and we need to get on board," said Jennifer Hoelzeman, a faculty member at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Critics at UA-Fayetteville -- which did not have any faculty members at the retreat -- and UALR had emphasized concerns about how the eVersity might affect those schools' existing online offerings. UA System leaders have said each campus will be free to continue developing online courses independently of the eVersity. Moore said Wednesday that he hopes innovations tested at the eVersity can be passed on to the campuses.
Paul Kroutter, a member of the criminal justice faculty at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, told the group that he went to the retreat "curious" about how the eVersity might affect his campus.
"After reading through the materials and listening to you all, I'm a little more at ease. And Arkansas needs this, OK," Kroutter said, describing how the online format is needed for working adults. "We have a lot of people, especially in law enforcement, that need to improve their educations, and this is a pathway for them to do that."
Metro on 12/18/2014