COVID-19 UPDATE: Important info for Ecampus students
Bob Horton, a student in Oregon State’s Executive Master of Public Policy program, says OSU Ecampus “makes a deliberate effort to provide inclusion opportunities” for online students. “It absolutely makes the experience more personal. It is palpable how committed the School of Public Policy faculty are to student success.”
The setting for Oregon State’s online computer science students may not have changed, but plenty is different this year for its students and faculty. Program director, Ben Brewster shares how he and many students have been affected by COVID-19.
Earning a degree online while in the military presents challenges that few people understand. We can’t tell you about an experience that we haven’t lived ourselves, but we can put you in touch with military service members, veterans and spouses who have. That’s why we created the Oregon State Ecampus military ambassadors program.
Can a high-quality degree truly be delivered online? How can you support students at a distance? How do I learn science online? At OSU Ecampus, we hear questions like these often and we’re proud to have the answers – as well as decades of experience in delivering nationally ranked education to students around the world. Watch a video and read more to see how it’s done.
Given its ubiquity across industries, analytics skills are in high demand in the job market, and research shows the trend is expected to continue. That’s, in part, why Oregon State Ecampus launched its online business analytics bachelor’s program. “(Companies) realize by analyzing this data, they can identify new solutions to optimize their business practices and to identify new sources of income,” says Bin Zhu, associate professor of business information systems in the College of Business.
On her first day as an OSU Ecampus student in 2013, Cheryl Jobs sat down at a Starbucks in the New York metro area, opened her laptop, and she got to work. “I remember feeling excited,” she recalls now. “The material had me hooked from day one.” Seven years later, Jobs is one of the 1,128 members of the Ecampus Class of 2020 who earned their degrees online.
Making high-quality education affordable and accessible for students is a critical priority at Oregon State. That’s the mission that has driven OSU’s Open Educational Resources Unit for many years, and it’s one we’re committed to more than ever. In order to help faculty and the OSU community better understand why OER are so critical for student success, the OER Unit’s leadership team answered a series of questions.
The Oregon State Ecampus Research Unit conducted interviews with 33 faculty members who have taught online at OSU for 10 years or more. This post discusses the results from one of the interview questions in this study: “What skills do you think are most valuable for online instructors to have?” A qualitative analysis of this question revealed some useful and timely information for instructors who may be teaching or planning to teach online.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust an opportunity upon online education professionals under very unfortunate circumstances. Now is the time for us to “get out of our lane,” so to speak, and show how we will support an entire educational enterprise for the advancement of our universities. Online education is on display like never before, and it is crucial that we rise to the occasion by sharing the collective leadership and knowledge we have that has led to many educational innovations in recent years.
Sarah Brown began as an OSU Ecampus student many years ago, when instruction was often delivered by VHS videos. Technology evolved as her studies continued (thankfully). After graduating with honors in 2016, Brown earned a prestigious Fulbright scholarship for the 2017-18 academic year. And the knowledge she gained in OSU’s sociology program significantly impacted her ability to succeed while conducting independent research in Hungary.
