The new Online GE Package will accommodate students with different learning styles, those with busy working schedules and seniors with outstanding GE requirements just shy of graduation.
“Thanks to the hard work and enthusiastic support of faculty and staff, HSU will soon be able to offer a full general education program online,” says HSU President Rollin Richmond. “This new program will increase our course offerings, improve scheduling flexibility and help our students graduate on time.”
Most courses in the online program will be 8-weeks—as opposed to the traditional 16 weeks—allowing students to complete their requirements in half the time and speed their path to graduation. Each course will be taught by an HSU faculty member, with guidance from a team of instructional designers from the College of eLearning and Extended Education.
The online package includes a total of 21 courses—from Elementary Statistics to Introductory Literature. Ten of the courses are available this semester, and plans are underway to add an additional eleven courses by the Fall of 2014.
Recent research suggests that when designed correctly, online courses can be as—or even more—effective than face-to-face learning, says Alex Hwu, associate vice president for the College of eLearning and Extended Education.
“Online learning isn’t meant to replace face-to-face education, but for the highly motivated, engaged student, it offers a lot of flexibility and is a convenient supplement to in-class learning,” Hwu says.
In the last decade alone, online learning enrollment has grown an average of 12 percent annually and accounted for 32 percent of total postsecondary enrollment in 2011, Hwu says. The California State University offers a number of undergraduate and graduate degree programs online through CSU Extended Education and Cal State Online.
HSU also has an established commitment to online education. Humboldt offers online certificates in Faculty Preparation, Exercise Nutrition and Ecotourism Planning & Management, an online Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Work and a Master’s in Education. The College of eLearning and Extended Education also recently announced the addition of three new online programs—an Institutional Research Graduate Certificate (starting Spring ’14), a Master’s degree in Applied Anthropology (starting Summer ’14, pending WASC approval) and a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with an option in Leadership Studies, beginning this fall, pending WASC approval.
Community members may sign-up for the online GE program through Open University. For more information, contact the College of eLearning and Extended Education at (707) 826-3731.