University of Missouri Kansas City set to increase online course offerings

University of Missouri Kansas City set to increase online course offerings

According to a recent report from its student publication, the University of Missouri Kansas City is currently planning to expand its online academic programs in an effort to offer more flexibility to its student population.

The University News reports that the institution's College of Arts and Sciences will submit a proposal to the Provost's Office to create an online degree completion initiative, similar to the one offered through the Program for Adult College Education (PACE).

"Our current plan is to use the bachelor of liberal arts program as our prototype program," said Wayne Vaught, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Building on the existing BLA class structure, online delivery is merely an expansion of the PACE mission to service non-traditional students by simply adding another delivery method via the web."

Vaught indicated that if everything goes as planned, the college may begin offering full-time online degree programs as early as this fall.

Today, nearly 4 million students are taking online courses and earning online college degrees. At the secondary school level, more than 700,000 high school students are taking one or more courses online and nearly 40 states have established state-led virtual schools.

By Mark Danson