With a focus on providing access to a high-quality, accredited learning experience, we now have an exciting new way to facilitate interactive learning and expand access to quality teaching. Through our new fully online accounting degree programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, students from all of Alabama, the region and the global community can access fully accredited (by AACSB) accounting programs.
Like all forms of student learning experiences, quality does matter. These programs are a result of over two years of market research and intensive preparation to assure that the quality of these online offerings match the recognized high quality of our traditional programs. The classes are developed by and will be taught by the same respected UAB teacher-scholars who currently teach in traditional (and blended) classroom formats. In the process of preparing for these programs, I have been amazed at how the technological tools available today can and do facilitate faculty-to-student interaction and mentoring, as well as very effective student-to-student and group interactions on projects and group discussions.
Applications are being accepted now for the undergraduate online program that begins this summer and the graduate online program beginning in the fall 2012. We are also providing a bridge program that will allow students with a degree not in accounting to “bridge’ to our Masters of Accounting program—just as we do with our traditional programs in accounting.
The same market research we did in Accounting has been completed for our Information System and Industrial Distribution programs. We are seeing many positive results from our research and are continuing to explore these options.
In addition to new online programs, our teacher-scholars are bringing new tools to traditional classrooms—allowing students to customize their individual pace of learning via online tutorials and learning tools. Such tools allow faculty more time to engage with individual students and to facilitate, not restrict, their critical role as life-changing mentors.
