Wednesday, December 31, 2008

University of Illinois at Springfield - One Model

The University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) is located in a city where the largest employer, by far, is state government. Governor Rod Blagojevich, from the day he took office in January of 2003, declined to reside in the governor's mansion and govern from the capital city; he remained in Chicago. He progressively moved state offices out of the capital to Chicago and elsewhere. This changed the economy and the nature of the prospective student base in the university's catchment region. The online program provided stability as the commuter base weakened.

With the assistance of grants - most notably from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation - the campus increasingly offered online classes as graphically depicted in the hyperlinked chart.

In the 2007-2008 academic year at UIS, 64.2% of all enrolled students took at least one online course during the year - see the animated three-year trend chart linked to the header.
  • 32.6% took only online courses
  • 31.6% mixed online and onground courses
  • 35.8% took only onground courses

Online majors are located in 47 states and a dozen countries. Online classes are the first ones to fill as soon as registration is open. The 17 degrees and 9 certificates are offered online by the on campus faculty.

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1 comment:

  1. Hripsime M.December 9, 2009 at 3:50 PM

    I guess there are pros and cons to the situation, but it sounds like Blagojevich was willing to take risks and they greatly affected the student population at the university. It's inevitable that more and more students will take online classes, especially if more of them are offered. It means less commuting, doing work on your own time and being in the comfort of you home as you do it.

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