Arizona State college rolls out new summer courses

Arizona State college rolls out new summer courses

Arizona State University's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences has announced that it will launch its first ever summer session in 2010, which will include classes in Spanish, ecology, persuasive writing, Arizona politics and mathematics.

Elizabeth Langland, Dean of New College, said that the majority of the offerings will be delivered through the school's innovative online platform, according to ASU News.

"Online courses are not deemed ready for delivery until they have passed through a rigorous development and course-building process with checks and balances built in at every stage," said professor Rob Taylor, who helped initiate the school's online education group, which provides mandatory workshops for faculty proposing online courses.

"We utilize a system of quality control to ensure that the quality of the teaching and learning experience in online New College courses is as high as or better than face-to-face offerings," he added.

All of the college's summer and online courses are taught be the same full-time faculty who are specialists in their field.

According to the 2009 Sloan Survey, approximately 4.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in the fall of 2008.

By Mark Danson