FAYETTEVILLE -- The latest expansion of online-only degree programs at the University of Arkansas involves a new bachelor's degree program within UA's largest academic college.
Beginning this fall students can enroll in interdisciplinary studies, a bachelor of arts program in UA's J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Tuition for online-only students is the same as for on-campus students from Arkansas, $234.26 per credit hour.
The latest option comes at a time when the UA System is working to develop eVersity, a new online-only venture aimed at older students who perhaps completed some college. Other UA System campuses -- as well as schools including Arkansas State University and the University of Central Arkansas -- also offer online bachelor's degree programs.
For UA, the state's largest university, the new offering is the the fourth bachelor's degree program to be available as an online-only course of study. Last year, UA introduced an online-only bachelor's degree program in general business offered through the Sam M. Walton College of Business.
The other two bachelor's degree options involve a degree completion program for nurses and a program in human resource and workforce development.
Robert Brady, the interdisciplinary studies program director, emphasized the new program is also open online to on-campus students. It involves students pairing a group of three related minors with completion of UA's core course requirements.
Six minors will be newly available to online-only students beginning this fall, according to Kay Murphy, director of communications for UA's Global Campus, the part of the university that assists academic units with development of online courses.
"It doesn't make sense to offer an online degree if a student couldn't complete all of the courses that are required online. And we're there, the university is there already," Brady said.
New minors will be available online in African and African American studies, child advocacy studies training, communication, criminal justice, journalism and Spanish. Another minor, social work, will continue to be offered to online-only students. All the courses making up the minors are taught by UA faculty members.
Information on UA's website about the new program lists examples of how students might group three thematically linked minors: tracks in "advocacy," "civil service and diversity," or "media."
Suzanne McCray, UA's provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said online-only students are eligible to apply for the same UA scholarships offered to on-campus students.
Many of UA's scholarships are for incoming freshmen.
"Most students who are 100 percent online are not new freshmen, so those scholarships are probably not going to a lot of 100 percent online students," McCray said, though she emphasized that transfer students enrolling in online-only programs are also eligible to apply for UA scholarships awarded to other students.
UA is also offering a new online-only master's degree program in secondary mathematics within the Fulbright College.
The university offers 33 degree and and certificate programs available online, according to Murphy.
"By expanding our online offerings in different fields of study, our university is making education more accessible to a wider audience and helping more people earn their degrees, even if they cannot come to the Fayetteville campus every day," Javier Reyes, UA's vice provost for distance education, said in an announcement Wednesday from UA about the availability of the new online-only Fulbright College programs.
The online-only degree and certificate programs had a combined enrollment of 1,255 students this spring, according to Murphy. Seventy-seven students were enrolled this spring in the first year of the general business bachelor's program.
As far as enrollment in the new interdisciplinary studies program, "to my knowledge, in Fulbright College, there is no quantified goal," Brady said. So far, however, questions from potential students have trickled in one or two a day, Brady said.
The "sticky wicket" involves the relative lack of options for online-only students compared with on-campus students, Brady said, noting a lack of certain science courses being taught online.
In the future, online minors that may be developed through other UA colleges -- such as a business minor, for example -- may be used to satisfy the interdisciplinary studies requirements, he said.
"We expect that other programs, departments will make their minors online," Brady said.
NW News on 07/10/2015