Most undergraduate students who balance work, school and a family quickly learn that the traditional class schedule simply doesn’t work for them.
In response, the Portland State School of Business Administration will offer an online business degree program for undergraduate students at PSU.
For the past six years, SBA has been running a fully online graduate business degree program. This is the first time the undergraduate degree has gone digital.
“It’s the same program that we offer on campus,” said Jeanne Enders, the associate dean of undergraduate programs in the SBA.
Prior to the creation of the online undergraduate program, a weekend option was available to students who work heavily during the week.
However, these classes were still organized as normal classes, with students physically attending lectures on campus.
Enders, along with several other business faculty, first met over the summer to discuss the idea of a fully online learning experience.
The program kicked off its first pilot runs this term. While it doesn’t provide general education university requirements, it does offer the upper division business classes that students take once they have been admitted to the business program.
Some of the online classes being offered this quarter are “Organizational Behavior” and “Research Analysis of Business Problems.”
Enders said she was inspired to create more flexible class options for students when she attended an executive business management conference and spoke with a product manager who wanted a business degree.
“He couldn’t participate in something like the weekend program because he worked weekend shifts. He was so smart and wanted his college degree and didn’t have a place to go,” Enders said.
Maureen O’Connor, a business professor now spearheading one of the online classes, noted the kind of people who attend her class to reenforce its necessity.
“A lot of them are doing it because they are working. Their schedules don’t allow them to commit to a classroom for four hours a week,” she said. “This online format gives them much more flexibility.”
O’Connor said she often sees the children of students running around in the background while the parents are attending class video chats.
The classes are made up of PowerPoint slideshows, recorded lectures and group work that students do on their own time. Still, they do meet in person at key points in the term.
“I met with them the first week and I will meet them the last week for group presentations, but apart from that it is all online,” O’Connor said.
Traditionally, online classes have been perceived as less engaging than regular classes. But the creators of this program say they are receptive to feedback, and the students are good at giving it.
O’Connor said that students taking her class are very good at speaking up about aspects of the class that could be modified to improve the overall experience.
In addition to the challenges involved in engaging the students are those concerning class size. With too many students, it can be even harder for professors to connect with students online.
Enders acknowledged this difficulty. “It’s really hard to teach online, so we’re capping the classes at 25 [students],” she said.
Ultimately, the most negatively viewed aspect of online classes is the lack of the traditional classroom experience; a place where students and the professor are all engaged in the moment, together, as a whole.
“From an instructor’s perspective, I enjoy the classroom environment and not having the face time [you would get in a normal class] is something we talked a lot about over the summer,” said TC Dale, a member of the team of faculty who built the program and a professor who will be teaching an online class next quarter.