California State University's 'radical' plan for online courses

This fall, for the first time, California State University students will be able to take courses offered online on any of the system's campuses -- regardless of where they attend.

The plan announced today, includes about 30 courses approved for systemwide consumption, from Elementary Astronomy to the History of Rock and Roll.

In other words, a student from San Francisco State can sign up for a microeconomics course taught at CSU Northridge, while students from that Southern California campus can learn all about American politics from a professor who teaches in San Francisco.

"It's radical for our system," said Mike Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for CSU.

The cross-campus course option -- called "concurrent enrollment" -- was funded from $17 million in additional state funding originally earmarked for online education initiatives. Students will be limited to one course per term that is offered by another CSU campus, in addition to any online offerings taught by their college's own professors.

The University of California is developing a similar program with state funding, and the California community colleges are using the money to develop their online programs.

Notably missing from the colleges' fall enrollment planning is a controversial online education bill introduced this spring that drew fierce faculty opposition. Proposed by Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, as a way to help students get the courses they need to graduate on time, SB 520 would have created a pool of online classes that would be accepted for credit at any public college or university in California -- including some created by unaccredited online education companies such as Coursera.

Though announced with much fanfare this spring, Steinberg's legislation has been put on hold until next year.

"This bill has prompted a real debate, and now we have the segments coming out with their plans," said Rhys Williams, a spokesman for Steinberg. The senator is "waiting to see how the plans develop," he said.

But it was the promise of additional state funding, not pending legislation, that set CSU's latest online initiatives in motion, Uhlenkamp said. It was hard for the system to find the money for such projects during the state budget crisis, he said, "when the reality was we needed to keep the doors open and the lights on."

Source: http://www.dailydemocrat.com/ci_23773797/california-state-universitys-radical-plan-online-courses?source=rss_viewed

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