CU took a big step last Thursday, unveiling a comprehensive plan to offer completely online degrees while expanding online offerings and additional online degrees at the University of Colorado Regents’ retreat.
The plan was presented by CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStephano and leaders from other CU campuses at University of Colorado System President Bruce Benson’s ranch near Silverthorne.
Unlike CSU’s global campus, CU won’t create an entirely new campus for online degrees. Instead, CU will begin by bulking up the number of online classes available to the general student population.
“We are developing systems to offer online degrees. But first we are looking to offer degree completion programs. This would allow a student who left CU—and was one class short of graduation in English or psychology—to take an online class and complete their degree,” CU campus spokesperson Ryan Huff said in an email.
The psychology and English undergraduate degrees will eventually be joined by master’s degrees in legal studies, environmental management, computer science, material science and electrical engineering.
The prospect of obtaining a master’s degree from your living room is certainly a big shift, and some CU students aren’t thrilled about the proposition of online degrees.
“An online-only English degree just doesn’t make sense. I mean, the whole system is based on face-to-face discussion. If we lost that, we would lose a big part of our experience,” John Gosnell, a senior majoring in English, said.
Contact CU Independent Breaking News Editor Sam Klomhaus at samuel.klomhaus@colorado.edu.
