COLUMBIA — The University of South Carolina has planned for some time to expand its online offerings for undergraduates, but when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the school sped up those efforts as virtual learning won more acceptance.
In the health crisis, administrators also saw an opportunity — the ultimate beta test for its online ambitions — that, alongside a corporate sponsorship contract from Major League Soccer, served as rocket fuel for the Carolina Online program announced earlier this spring for debut this fall. If the expansion, championed by former President Bob Caslen, goes as planned, USC is expected to have the largest number of online undergraduate degrees of any school in the Southeastern Conference.
But university professors say the process went too fast, unintentionally skipping over faculty leadership approvals meant to ensure quality in the virtual programs.
Members of USC Columbia Faculty Senate, which is charged with the review of the school's degree programs, sounded the alarm. It has sent university administration circling back, vowing to take the necessary steps to fix the oversight and work with instructors over the summer to meet the appropriate checks and balances.
“The concern is really the rush,” said Rebecca Stern, an English and literature professor who serves on the Faculty Senate. "I think most of us are in agreement that it would be great to develop our online offerings further. This is not about faculty refusing to go online. It’s about wanting to deliver something that meets the standards of the Columbia campus."
Faculty Senate Chairman Mark Cooper agreed the effort moved "just a bit too quickly at the end of an exhausting year," taking a process that would ideally have taken another year and compressing it into roughly five months.
Still, he said faculty and administration alike want to ensure the program's implementation is done right.
Harris Pastides, USC's past president who is expected to be elected interim president May 21, has asked to review the plan for Carolina Online to ensure any stakeholder concerns are addressed. Pastides is coming back after Caslen's resignation last week amid a plagiarism scandal.
"Our goal remains to expand high quality educational options for traditional and non-traditional students alike," USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in a statement.
Cooper said the issue simply highlighted a gap in policy that will now be addressed.
While Faculty Senate has approved individual courses for online instruction in the past, this is the first time a full undergraduate degree program will go virtual and criteria for evaluating that was never developed.
Stern said this is important because, while there are many individual courses approved for online delivery, a full degree program should "feel more like a trajectory than just a bunch of random classes."
Cooper said USC does have the wherewithal to make it happen this summer, especially as initial enrollment in the program is expected to start out small.
Instructional designers for online courses have long been available and many faculty have taken advantage of those resources. And the system's Palmetto College provided an opportunity for students who had previous college credits to complete the remaining requirements for several four-year degrees online.
"We have the expertise," said Ramy Harik, an engineering professor and member of the Faculty Senate.
Harik chaired the committee that created a checklist for developing online courses offered amid the coronavirus pandemic this past year.
The committee approved more than 230 courses for online delivery during the past school year. He taught his first class last summer where students didn't have a set class time and instead completed coursework at their own pace, a model which will be at the center of Carolina Online's instruction.
But while there are plenty of classes already online, there are still gaps when it comes to completing a full degree, particularly in offering the core general studies classes required of all undergraduates.
Some degree programs, to fulfill a specific educational aim, may require a student to take one of two very specific courses, Cooper said. And those classes may fall within departments that are not part of the 31 advertised degree offerings of Carolina Online, causing instructors in those departments to prepare for a virtual class they had not been expecting.
Harik said these are issues that can be worked around. It's just a matter of taking the time to do it through the proper channels and ensuring agreement across departments.
"Faculty recognize a university's main source of revenue is tuition," Cooper said. "So if we have the opportunity to reach and engage more students, it's good for the institution."
For the majority of students, Carolina Online will cost about $333 per credit hour, compared to the usual $512 per credit hour cost in-state students pay at the Columbia campus. That rate is also far below the rate paid for online degrees from other schools, like Arizona State University which charges roughly $560 per credit hour.
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