By Robert Klimper |Staff Writer| Faculty and students discuss the challenges and advantages of online courses in the light of students' demands and quality factors. Though online courses offer a more flexible schedule, it is not unheard of for students to feel a somewhat of a disconnect to the instructor of the courses as they can just be a wall of text with no face to face interaction. “I probably won’t take another [online course]...I would rather be able to speak to the teacher myself,” said Joscelyne Baisa, a freshman at CSUSB taking her first online course this quarter. CSUSB offers opportunities for professors and students to hold a simulated classroom environment with … [Read more...] about Simulated classroom learning
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CSUSB ranked among top online programs
By Gloria Gutierrez | Staff Writer | CSUSB online programs rank high among other online degree programs and continue to provide an alternative for in-class learning. CSUSB provides affordable, flexible and essential quality online programs, according to affordablecollegesonline.com. Takiya Moore, an instructional design technician at Online Distributed Learning, explained that our programs differ from the "cookie-cutter" programs offered at public colleges and private for-profit universities because our online programs can be highly customized. CSUSB professors take the opportunity to shape the context of their material based on how they feel will benefit and engage students best. For … [Read more...] about CSUSB ranked among top online programs
Reinvestment in higher education
By Mariela Limon |Staff Writer| Governor Jerry Brown’s newly released 2013-2014 state budget proposal gives back to higher education, including an extra $125.1 million for the California State University system. If passed, the budget guarantees that the CSU system will receive a total of $2.2 billion in state funding. According to the Governor’s Budget Summary, in order to improve student success, the funds will be directed towards, “...improvements in time-to-completion, improvements in graduation and completion rates in all segments, increases in transfer students enrolled at CSU and UC and successful credit and basic skills course completion.” The proposal also caps the number of … [Read more...] about Reinvestment in higher education
Ditch classes, go online
By Carmen Herrera |Staff Writer| We’ve all been there. Sitting in a classroom for almost two hours listening to your professor read from a PowerPoint presentation that’s already posted on Blackboard. If not for an attendance, you most likely wouldn’t show up. Rather than wasting time in these classes, a better option is moving these classes to online only. With highly accessible technology and tuition at an all-time high, this seems like an efficient alternative. With the recent pending $500 million budget cut to the CSU systems, tuition could be raised by as much as 32 percent starting fall quarter 2011. These costs do not include other expenses such as books, supplies and … [Read more...] about Ditch classes, go online