THE FUTURE OF ONLINE LEARNING AT USU Now, we are poised to expand our offerings in three new areas: (1) We are working to offer a second graduate program (Theory and Practice of Writing Master's degree), one that is in great demand by practicing teachers in Utah; (2) We are working to offer a Certificate in Linguistics; and (3) We are currently pilot testing online versions of the second general education writing course, English 2010: Intermediate Writing. The online English 2010 course may also be offered through the Utah Electronic Community College in the future. These three areas of course development are detailed below. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF WRITING MASTER'S DEGREE We have not been able to provide such a program off-campus because of a shortage of available staff who could travel to the remote centers and teach the courses. The SyllaBase online classroom provides us with a solution to the staffing and distance problems because we can contract with faculty anywhere to teach in the program and can deliver the courses to anyone who has Internet access, no matter where they live. Furthermore, as with the technical writing program, we can reach out to qualified teachers who can teach these classes online. In meetings with the USU Extension centers, we have proposed a curriculum for the online Theory and Practice of Writing Master's degree. | |
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