Utah Online Colleges : Interviews of the Best Accredited Schools

Why did Weber State decide to start offering online programs? How have they changed over timed?

Stecklein:     In 1997, there was an interactive videoconferencing system across the entire state of Utah being put in, which was an initiative from the governor. We had mixed assessments of that. We saw online come to the forefront and thought that online was going to be important, so we wanted to put a lot of resources into it. We re-purposed faculty and staff to work online.
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At that time, we gave incentivized faculty to receive training and develop their courses online. We also created our own learning management system, so we had programmers working on the fly.
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We got a really great response from our faculty in the early phases of our process, from a course perspective.  We built that up over the years. We’re up to about 300 courses now.
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Jensen: About 300 unique courses.  We usually end with over 400 sections.
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Stecklein:     Yes, that evolved.  And, the learning management system evolved. We determined to go from a homegrown system to a few others over the years. Then, we migrated to Canvas with all of the other state schools in Utah.

Have you seen the profile of Weber State’s online students change over time?

Jensen: I think the majority of our online students are on-campus students who live in the area, who use online to augment their face-to-face course offerings. This allows them to take more credits because they can fit that into their schedule. Most of them work full-time and many of them have family responsibilities.  They’re juggling a lot and the flexibility of a course that doesn’t have a specific meeting time is huge to them.  We do have some true distant students and we do our best to meet their needs, but that’s not the majority of the students we serve with our online courses.
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Stecklein:     I think from the beginning, online has been more of an augmentation for the students right here in Weber, Davis, and Morgan counties, helping just to fit more into their schedules.
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Jensen: That could be a result of the way our online offerings grew, where faculty were incentivized to create a new course as opposed to growing specific online programs.

Do you primarily use your full-time faculty to teach your online courses?  Or, do you use adjuncts?

Stecklein:     It’s kind of a mix.  I don’t know what the exact mix is.  Certainly, in the beginning, it was mostly full-time faculty.  As time has gone on, adjuncts have been doing it.
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Jensen: The mix is determined by departments and department chairs.  In some departments, I’ve heard adjunct faculty say that they can’t get an online course. In other departments, it’s not a big deal.  They can teach online if they want to.

Is the application process different for students applying to one of your online programs?

Stecklein:     It’s the same application process.  We’re an open enrollment school, so if they have a high school equivalent, they’re accepted.

What are some of the ways you’ve tried to engage your online students so that they feel part of a community?

Stecklein:     Taking a look at the students that are just taking the courses to augment their schedules, we’ve not done a lot.  We do have a few degree programs that are online.  At least I know one of them that feels like they’ve done a good job. The HIS and MHA programs have worked hard to try to create those communities.
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Jensen: In the one-by-one courses, it’s really a matter of the individual faculty taking the initiative to create that sense of community within their courses. Our office provides training to faculty as a part of our larger professional development program that encourages the building of community within courses.  So, we touch on, not only the technical aspects of how to teach an online course, but best practices for leading a course that go beyond the technical things, including how to build community.  I do see examples of particular programs that offer fully online degrees that go out of their way to create a sense of community.
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One in particular that does require some face-to-face time is our radiological sciences program.  They require their students to come to campus for a brief and intense face-to-face portion. I’ve met with those students before to do training and some of them seem to have quite a sense of understanding of how they fit into the overall structure and who their peers were before they even got to campus. I think the students were reaching out to each other quite a bit in the courses and our learning management system helps facilitate that.  It’s very easy for students in a Canvas course to pull up a new email message to send a message to the entire course.
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Some other programs offer orientations for anyone who wants to be a part of their online program and that helps to create a sense of community. It means that students are in a course that’s not focused on the subject matter, but focused on getting to know each other, understanding the program, and what skills they need to develop, so that they can be successful in that program.

What support services are available to your online students? Do the programs normally determine the services or does Weber State as an institution lead this?

Jensen: We have a whole section on our website that’s geared towards services for online students including basic information they need about financial aid, registration, and advising. In many of these cases, we give them basic information and then refer them to that particular office on campus, so that they can call or email and get their questions answered.  We do offer advising for online students.
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Stecklein:     We have one advisor who takes care of all those distance students.  I also believe some of our college advisors will also help distance students.

Are your online students allowed to walk at commencement?

Stecklein:     Sure, yes, if they want to come.
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Jensen: And, there’s nothing on their diploma or any of the other documentation that would show that it was an online degree.  All of the students are treated the same.

What advice would you give to a prospective student about the best way to decide which program and school is right for him or her.

Stecklein:     You should get a feel of who the faculty are that are going to be in your program, and see if you can learn where their expertise has been.  Is that going to match some of your desires that you’re working on?  It would also be good to try to talk to some students that are in the program and see what their experience has been like, to make sure that that’s going to fit your need because we all have different needs when we work on our education.  Some of us need lots of help and encouragement and others are very autonomous and can just get in there and do it without needing a lot of interaction.
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So, make sure that you understand where those touchpoints are, what faculty are doing, what’s expected of you for your classes, and what type of testing process you’re going to have to work through, because that can be a challenge.
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Jensen: Find someone who works in the field that you’re interested in and talk to that person about what they do on a daily basis, to see if that’s really the area you want to pursue.  Once you do that, I think it’s a little easier to determine which school and which particular program is going to meet your needs best.

What changes should we expect to see at Weber State over the next five years?

Stecklein:     We are seeing a few more programs beginning to come online and we’re hoping that continues, so that we continue to provide as much access as possible to our students, not only locally, but at a distance.  Any time we begin to offer a program completely online, it also helps our students that are right here because they can also take those courses.  So, I think we’re seeing movement there and we’re hoping that that continues.

Is there anything else that a prospective student should know about Weber State?

Jensen:  For years, we’ve touted the individualized attention that you get from faculty when you are at Weber and the small class size.  Overwhelmingly, at Weber, we have faculty who really care about students, who are focused on teaching, and who are willing to give individual help to students when they need it.
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Stecklein: I would concur with that.  Because we are a teaching institution and the faculty are committed to that, students get the personalized attention that they need for their individual careers.

Why did UVU start to offer online courses?

Although we’ve had online courses for some time, it really gained momentum in 2007, UVU wanted to provide greater access to students, particularly within our service reach, but beyond, as well. It has expanded consistently over time, so that now about 20% of our total enrollments are in online or technology-supported courses.

Do your full-time faculty teach online courses or have you hired adjunct instructors?

We have about the same mix of full-time to adjunct instructors as in on-campus courses.  More than half of our online classes are taught by our full-time faculty.

What is the profile of your online student? Do you primarily focus on non-traditional or adult learners?

It really is a mix. There are probably more non-traditional students in the online programs.  On campus, we’re about the same mix as well. The average age of our students is over 25 and most are married. Online learning is especially appealing to non-traditional students, because so many of them work full-time and benefit from the convenience and schedules offered through online courses.

How should an online student approach the admissions and application process? Are your criteria the same for online and face-to-face students?

The criteria are exactly the same online and on-campus.  It’s the same application and students who enroll in on-campus programs can take online courses, and students who enroll in online programs can take on-campus courses. There really is no special consideration.
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We’re an open-access institution, so we have structured the curriculum around the needs of our students. We maintain high standards for completion, but we’re open-access coming in. Then we provide a diverse offering of supportive services along the way to help them succeed.

What support services are available to your online students?

We have online and on-campus tutoring. We have some course specialists that are assigned to assist with courses and help with student needs, in addition to the regular leadership and interaction of the faculty members. We have online help.  We have “how-to” tutorials and technology. We have early alert systems. We have optional live group study sessions. We are always looking for new ways to support students.
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In addition to the online resources our students can tap into all of the on-campus resources. Many online students live in close proximity to campus and sometimes they like to come to campus and take advantage of those services face-to-face.

If an online student wanted to take part in Commencement Ceremonies, would UVU welcome that?

Yes, they would be treated like any other student.

Is there any distinction on a transcript or diploma that says that the student completed a program online? Or, are all transcripts and diplomas identical?

There is no distinction. They are identical.

What changes do you expect to see over the next five years in UVU’s online education offerings?

I believe that our online programs will expand pretty dramatically.  Our enrollment generally is projected to grow from 32,000 students to 40,000 students in the next five years, which is really remarkable growth. I expect that a lot of that growth will be from online learners. I believe that online classes just provide a more flexible option for students and the many commitments they have.

What advice do you have for prospective students who are deciding which online program to pursue?

I think it’s very important to find out if it is the same faculty teaching online and on-campus. In many programs, the credentials of the online faculty are really not equivalent to the on-campus ones. I think it is important to know whether the program, as a result, has the same quality and meaning as the on-campus credential would have.
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It’s also important to know what services are available, particularly in terms of placement, internships, and other types of opportunities.  It can be challenging to take classes online, but sometimes it works even better online than on-campus.
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Also, the standard criteria like technical support and advising are important, too. Students need to know the quality of advising they’re getting because they depend heavily on that adviser, not only to be a coach to get you through, but also to ensure that your program really will lead where you want it to go.

Is there anything else prospective students should know about UVU and why they should consider enrolling in one of its online programs?

First and foremost, UVU is a teaching institution. We take great pride in the quality of the faculty who teach our students. Our faculty come with diverse backgrounds and expertise all aimed at providing the best education possible for our students.
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UVU is remarkably focused on student success. We sometimes say that the focus of some institutions is to create star faculty. But the focus at UVU is to create star students.
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Another thing that makes us stand out is that we very much believe in engaged learning. We have a Carnegie classification as an engaged institution, so where we can, we try to take courses beyond the classroom to application. It is essential that students gain an understanding of the material within the applied context. This really deepens their understanding and prepares them better for life and for careers.
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We are also committed to inclusiveness, so we also try to engage a rich diversity of students in every aspect of what that means, and let their culture and history enhance the instruction and the overall experience for all our students.
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While we’re an open-admission institution, we are very serious about our academic standards. When a student leaves with a UVU credential, employers know that this graduate is well-prepared and qualified for their field of study.