Lamar University Reaches Thousands Online With Help From Higher Ed Holdings Lamar University Reaches Thousands Online With Help From Higher Ed Holdings June 4 Cheap Robert Quinn Jersey , 2012 | Author: | Posted in Education
Article by Dave Sorter
Accessible and Affordable Graduate Degree Programs Establish Lamar as Largest Educator of Teachers in Texas
Lamar University in Beaumont made a remarkable recovery from two devastating hurricanes. Within three years of the disaster, Lamar became the largest educator of teachers in Texas. It’s fitting that the state university named after the “Father of Texas Education” launched with Higher Ed Holdings the online graduate degree programs that to date have enrolled more than 4,000 certified teachers from school districts across the state.The university credits Higher Ed Holdings of Dallas with helping its brick and mortar campus in far southeast Texas cross a digital divide. In the spirit of innovation that marks the “Golden Triangle” region known for the legendary discovery of oil at Spindletop, Lamar struck a partnership with Higher Ed Holdings to help professors move their courses online and increase enrollment to meet state goals.
In October 2007, Lamar University launched online master’s degree programs for its College of Education and Human Development. Higher Ed Holdings provides the Internet delivery platform – including high-quality production, discussion and chat-room capabilities, and a comprehensive student support system. Dr. Hollis Lowery-Moore, dean of the College of Education and Human Development, said the university lost about 500 students because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, before Lamar’s partnership with Higher Ed Holdings began. The story was different when Hurricane Ike pummeled southeast Texas in 2008, when the online platform was in place.
“After Ike, we had the distance learning option and those students didn’t miss a beat,” Lowery-Moore said.
Access and affordability are the primary reasons Lamar’s online offerings have attracted more than 4,000 students among its three Master’s Degree programs.
“We’re unique in our location,” Lowery-Moore said. “You go east Cheap Samson Ebukam Jersey , you’re in another state (Louisiana). You go north, there’s Stephen F. Austin State University. West, there’s Houston, which has all sorts of educational opportunities. And if you go south, you’re in the Gulf of Mexico.
“So we don’t have a large population to reach out to. If we were to grow, we had to reach beyond the surrounding community. Distance learning was one answer.”
Online learning is certainly a trend. More than 4 million college and university students nationwide took at least one online course each of the past two years, according to the 2008 Survey of Distance Learning by the Instructional Technology Council and an April 2, 2009, article in U.S. News and World Report.The growth at Lamar University is reversing a troubling trend as the nation tries to meet the 21st Century challenge of seeding the knowledge economy of the future.
“The enrollment of working-age adults in college-level education or training has been declining since the early 1990s,” according to Measuring Up 2008, a report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. “Indicators show that access to college is fairly flat in the United States, with mostly small improvements in some states and declines in others.”
The states that are improving include Texas, where Higher Ed Holdings partnerships at Lamar and the University of Texas at Arlington make it possible for more students with jobs and families to expand their education. Those who have teaching jobs can earn their master’s degrees online at Lamar and UTA, often earning a valuable stipend for the advanced degree and positioning themselves for leadership opportunities.
Donna Lewis, a 14-year teaching veteran who teaches special education students at the Secondary Reassignment Center in the Irving Independent School District near Dallas Cheap Josh Reynolds Jersey , is enrolled in Lamar’s online Education Administration program. After learning about the opportunities distance learning provides, she “decided it was time to go for it.”
Lewis said she likely would not have been able to pursue the degree without the online option.
“I wouldn’t be able to get out of my home that often,” she said. “It would be too much time away from my family.”
She also said that the flexibility of the program – she can view the courses when she’s able, do the assignments around her schedule and join discussion groups at her leisure – was one reason she decided on the online Lamar program.
And, one Lamar professor said, that’s an incentive for students to enroll.
“It’s economical and psychologically friendly,” said Dr. Dorothy Sisk, who holds the Conn Chair in Professional Pedagogy at Lamar and teaches the courses Cognition and Instruction, and Creative Instructional Strategies on the online platform.
“You can look at the video when you want; you can bounce your baby on your knee while you’re doing it.”
Ever-evolving technology also is spurring the growth in online enrollment. The expansion of bandwidth, the ability to create video in higher and higher definition, and chat room capabilities make these courses virtually identical to their classroom equivalents.For example, Sisk is updating her online Cognition and Instruction course for the 2009 Summer Semester – the Creative Instructional Strategies class will be updated for the fall term – and is using updated video technology to enhance the class.
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