TRC to offer three new online degrees

Three Rivers College students will have the chance this fall to complete three online degrees.

While setting up these degrees didn’t come from COVID-19, the process was fast-tracked because of it.

“Given the current state of crisis, we put the gas to the floor and moved it forward,” Dr. Wesley Payne, TRC president, said during Wednesday’s board meeting.

TRC Department Chair of Languages, Communication, Fine Arts and Agriculture Dr. Melissa Davis, who helped set up these programs, said in the past any online courses were faculty driven. Since COVID-19 forced courses online this spring, some that hadn’t considered going online needed to.

“We caught a few pockets that hadn’t gone online yet; the science courses with the labs,” said Dr. Staci Foster, Nursing and Allied Health director who also worked to set these programs up. “… music and art, those are big ones because their performance.

“And then nursing and allied health, all of mine, we’re not online, and we got forced into that for a minute (during spring). It’s been interesting for everybody to see what our capacity and ability is.”

Through these new offerings, students can receive an Associate of Arts in Teaching, Associate of Science in Administration of Justice and Associate of Arts with transfer pathways into 10 programs at four-year universities.

The college has had permission to provide these programs since 2010, but there were details that needed hammered out. Offering online programs is on the college’s new five-year plan, which was developed before COVID-19 hit. The college planned to do a soft rollout of the programs next spring.

Davis said at this point they already offered most of the courses required for these programs online, but some weren’t.

Davis said, she and Foster communicated with other schools offering online courses to discuss what has worked for them. They’ve also tested unique programs to see what would work with the current program, Blackboard, the college uses.

Davis said they’re still looking into programs to prevent cheating and proctored digital tests.

The primary focus going forward, Davis said, is to work with faculty and make sure they have everything they need to be successful when it rolls out.

“The primary steps are making sure our faculty are ready for the online courses and online programs that we’ll be rolling out in the fall, that the quality is there for the students and the faculty, and that the support systems in place for the students are available and ready to go,” Davis said.

Payne said if there’s a benefit of what happened this spring, digital classes and support were “tested the hard way.” There are still details with some of these courses that need worked on, but summer will serve as a test run.

Davis said the long-term goal is to continue offering more options online. She hopes to come to the board again next year with more online programs ready to be implemented.

There will always be students who prefer in-person courses, she said, but others respond to online courses better.

In a student survey the college conducted, Payne said, very few students had issues with getting online work done during the spring semester.

Those who did had multiple issues such as internet accessibility at their home and difficulty with transportation to somewhere to gain access.

While some expressed frustration with the situation, less than a dozen said they wanted to wipe this semester from their transcript, Payne said. He expects some students will want to retake courses.

Pathway programs include:

• Business Administration

• Communication

• English

• General Education

• History

• Political Science

• Pre-Law

• Psychology

• Social Work

• Sociology