More traditional and non-traditional UW-Whitewater students are enrolling in online courses largely because of the advancements in technology and flexible scheduling.

According to Director of Admissions Jodi Hare there are more online courses offered this semester and more students enrolled in them. This semester, there are 110 online courses offered with 3,671 students, which is an increase of 15 courses and approximately 300 students.

The College of Business and Economics offers an average of 50 online courses per year, with the majority of them being Master of Business Administration courses, Dean of the College of Business and Economics Christine Clements said.

Debra Heiber, an advisor in the College of Letters and Sciences, said the college offers about 20 online courses and two complete online majors.

But are online courses more profitable for the university?

Clements said the cost of enrolling in these courses may be higher, but the price to support them is higher as well.

“The cost of technology, technology support, faculty and staff training, course evaluation, and administrative and advising costs are not insignificant,” Clements said. “With that said, we are at least able to recover costs … something we cannot do with our traditional programs.”

The demand for online courses is growing, mainly because of their flexibility, Clements said.

“The student demographic is shifting to fewer traditional-aged and more returning adult students,” Clements said. “With that in mind, having a strong online program is going to become increasingly critical.”

The vast majority of MBA students work full-time and are trying to advance their careers, Clements said. Many of them, have families and other life obligations as well, she added.

Heiber and Kristal Kagy, the Early Childhood Education program’s online dual licensure cohort coordinator, said online courses in their programs are usually taken by full time workers as well.

Clements said online courses, although available to traditional students, were designed for non-traditional students. However, some traditional students may take online courses in case of scheduling conflicts, Clements said.

Clements also said there are more advantages to online courses besides flexibility.

“One other advantage, which is especially true of the MBA, is that we draw people from a broad range of industries and locations, which facilitates interesting discussions,” Clements said. “Online ‘discussions’ allow everyone to participate.”

As far as whether students or teachers like them, Clements said she believes there are people on both sides of the fence.

“Some teachers love teaching online and others don’t,” Clements said. “Most who do love it also love teaching traditionally.  This is first-and-foremost a teaching institution, and our faculty come here because they like working with students.”

Heiber said if students are prepared, they tend to like online courses.

“I think the students prepared for the kind of independence it takes to pursue online courses tend to like them a lot,” Heiber said. “Some students just prefer the face-to-face interaction, but an online course can have a lot of video and chat kind of face-to-face things that people get out of them.”

However, not all students are successful using an online course format, Kagy said.

“Reading and writing is the primary method of interaction for an online course, which can be challenging for some students who prefer to learn through lectures,” Kagy said.

Clements said online courses are far from threatening the university and that online courses make the College of Business and Economics a better college.

Kagy agreed.

“Online is a different delivery model that works very well alongside traditional face-to-face courses,” Kagy said.