California Dreaming: Remaking Online Education at the U. of California

Officials at the University of California system have proposed an expansion of online efforts in the midst of a fiscal crisis, in an attempt to provide for-credit courses to a greater number of students. The proposal contrasts sharply with the system’s current online program:

Now

University of California campuses currently enroll more than 25,000 students each year online. But nearly all of them are in courses that are part of graduate or extension programs; undergraduate students cannot typically take those courses for credit.

One campus, Berkeley, offers eight online classes to undergraduates during the summer. The largest one, an introductory course in statistics and probability, enrolls 500 students. Another campus, Irvine, offers a series of smaller online courses that undergraduates can take during the summer.

The Future

Short-term: A pilot project will create online versions of roughly 25 high-enrollment, entry-level courses. Here’s a preliminary list of those courses (or course series) and their average annual enrollments, systemwide:

Long-term: Supporters hope to use the pilot program to persuade faculty members to back a far-reaching expansion of online instruction that would offer associate degrees entirely online, and, ultimately, bachelor’s degrees.