UNIVERSITY CORNER: Thomas Edison State College
MAE 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 (March)
A: Thomas Edison State College was established in 1972 to provide flexible, high-quality collegiate learning opportunities for selfdirected adults, wherever they live or work. Today, serving this mission remains at the heart of everything we do. Throughout our history, we have been serving the United States military and have been a pioneer in developing degree programs exclusively for military personnel for more than three decades.
All of our courses and credit-earning options are delivered at a distance to wherever a student is stationed or deployed. Students can take online courses; complete courses through credit-by-exam programs, independent study and prior learning assessment programs; transfer credits earned at other regionally accredited institutions; and earn credit through military training and specific certifications and licensures.
Q: Are there any particular programs that military students seem particularly keen on?
A: The most popular single program among military students is our Bachelor of Science in applied science and technology degree in nuclear engineering technology, which has more than 1,200 military students. This is attractive to many of our Navy students because of the value we place on the Navy’s Nuclear Power Program. Graduates of the program can apply credit awarded for the Nuclear Power Program to their area of study and to the physics and chemistry requirements in the nuclear engineering technology program. Other popular degree programs for military students include the Bachelor of Arts degree in liberal studies, which has more than 900 students, and the Associate in Applied Science degree in applied electronic studies, which has nearly 600 students.
Q: What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing higher education today?
A: Since September 11th, the average active duty servicemember has been deployed five times. When they come back after a deployment, returning to college is not typically the first thing they need to do. This can make it challenging for both institutions, which are interested in helping their military students complete their programs, and servicemembers, who want to graduate.
Another challenge, especially for public institutions like Thomas Edison State College, is reduced public support for higher education. Since the economic downtown, decreased public support for higher education has become a national issue. In New Jersey, the home of Thomas Edison State College, it has been an issue even when the economy was strong.
Q: How is Thomas Edison ready to meet these challenges?
A: Thomas Edison State College has created flexible extension policies that enable students who are deployed to remain enrolled, even though they may not be active in a course for more than a year. This enables a seamless transition back into their degree program when a servicemember returns from a deployment and is ready to go back to school.
In New Jersey, continued diminished public support for higher education affects all state colleges and universities. Thomas Edison State College has been able to mitigate funding cuts without cutting any academic programs or student services by tightening our belts. Over the past five years, the college has experienced tremendous growth, especially in military enrollments, and has continued to develop new programs and methods of earning credit. We will continue to focus on growing our enrollment and increasing philanthropic support for our institution.
Q: Distance learning and online technologies are certainly growing nationwide, especially among military students. Has Thomas Edison seen an increase in online enrollment?
A: In the just the past five years, enrollments in online courses have increased by 144 percent at Thomas Edison State College. Today, online course enrollments account for approximately 77 percent of total course enrollments.
Q: What online applications does the college use? What do you think are some of the most effective online classroom tools?
A: Some of the most effective tools for our online courses include the interactive online discussion board, which enable students to communicate with each other and their course mentors; embedded videos; online calendars of assignment deadlines; self-quizzes to help students master course content; free online tutoring; and links to online databases and test preparation resources offered by the New Jersey State Library, the Virtual Academic Library Environment and the LearningExpress Library.
Q: Please discuss any initiatives, strategies or changes that Thomas Edison is considering implementing in the future.
A: Thomas Edison State College’s Mobile Learning Initiative, which launched in 2009, focuses on making our courses and degree programs more readily accessible to students where broadband Internet access is limited, including forward deployed locations in the Middle East and on ships at sea. As part of this initiative, the college received a federal grant that is being used to accelerate the deployment of a new course delivery system that utilizes cloud computing technologies and is designed to increase access and minimize technical issues for our students. ♦