Historically Black colleges and universities continue their modest pace of increasingly embracing online learning programs as a vehicle for reaching more potential students, especially so-called non-traditional students, those who are usually older and working, according to the 2012 HBCU Online & Blended Degree Programs study from the Howard University Distance Learning Lab.
The study, the only one of its kind focusing on web-based education programs at HBCUs, is based on an analysis of the 105 HBCU Web sites. Among its key findings:
Howard, for example, has partnered with Embanet-Compass, a vendor that also partners with Northeastern University and the University of Southern California. And EOServe Corp. has partnerships with Jackson State and Langston universities and Tugaloo College.
“Blended” courses and programs are courses of study in which 30 to 80 percent of the program content is offered online and the balance requires traditional face-to-face classroom engagement, the Howard study said. Full online courses deliver 80 to 100 percent of their content over the Web.
“HBCUs are making steady progress and that’s a good thing,” said Dr. Roy L. Beasley, director of the Howard University Digital Learning Lab (DLL) and author of the report, the fifth in a series that started in 2005.
Beasley said HBCUs are expanding into digital learning at a pace that tracks the larger higher education community. Some observers may assert the HBCUs are moving too slowly to embrace digital learning, he said.
Rushing to get into the game can prove unproductive, however, he added, in noting that getting a solid footing in distance education takes time and is not an overnight proposition.
