University of Idaho Provost and Executive Vice President Torrey Lawrence announced at a Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday the institution is moving forward with an initiative, with the hopes of building a stronger remote learning infrastructure.
Originally drafted by the Online Education Working Group, the white paper initiative’s goal is to develop a plan for creating more online options at the university.
“There exists an audience beyond in-person learning,” Lawrence said. “Right now, we don’t support that audience essentially in any way.”
While several UI colleges have already made good transitions to online learning, it was all due to individual efforts, according to Lawrence.
“We have some very successful online programs,” Lawrence said. “They’re very successful in spite of the university’s support, not because of it.”
One of the successful online programs that Lawrence mentioned was from the College of Natural Resources.
According to wildland fire science and combustion physics professor Alistair Smith, UI’s natural resources graduate program is the largest in the nation. This is due to their recruitment efforts for remote education and attempts to broaden the reach with online students.
In one of these online-based efforts, the senate unanimously passed adding an option for a fish and wildlife science and management option to the master of natural resources degree.
“This is mainly focused on the online market, so we can continue to increase our enrollment in this sector,” Smith said.
Lawrence said the next step in the process is to hire someone who can lead the effort. More announcements will follow as decisions are made.
Cody Roberts can be reached at arg-news@uidaho.edu @uidaho.edu or on Twitter @CodyRobReports