{"id":22907,"date":"2016-02-24T08:52:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T14:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=22907"},"modified":"2016-02-24T08:52:17","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T14:52:17","slug":"hibbing-daily-tribune-bsu-distance-programs-help-rangers-connect-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2016\/02\/24\/hibbing-daily-tribune-bsu-distance-programs-help-rangers-connect-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Hibbing Daily Tribune: BSU distance programs help Rangers connect online"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEMIDJI — Student enrollment in online course offerings — both for undergraduate and graduate-level — at Bemidji State University is growing.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the Arrowhead region, including the Iron Range, is a major force driving that expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n

“About 20 percent of our student population is now taking online courses. There’s quite a group of them … 800 to 900 students. Some are full-degree students, with others taking a course or two,” Lynn Johnson, BSU director of distance learning, said in a telephone interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

“And in our online programs the Arrowhead region is second only to the metro area.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson said the challenge is to find those who move a different direction in their lives and are seeking more education opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The average age of BSU online learners is 30.26 years, Johnson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Many we find are in the situation of miners on the Range. They either had started or completed two-year degrees and now are out of the work world for a while. Now they really need to get back to finish a bachelor’s degree,” Johnson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some online students are in their 50s looking for a second degree. “There’s certainly an audience there,” Johnson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We don’t want to replace the importance of our on-campus students. But we think online is where we’ll see growth,” she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson said the Applied Engineering and Technology Management degree programs may be of particular interest to students who have a completed technical degree and are looking to build on that degree and their experience to move into a management type position.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, the Business Administration and Accounting degrees may interest those looking to shift into other areas, she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

o<\/span><\/p>\n

The BSU undergraduate extended learning program offerings are:<\/span><\/p>\n

• Accounting.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Applied Engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Biology Baccalaureate<\/span><\/p>\n

Partnership.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Business Administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Metro Area Business<\/span><\/p>\n

Administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Criminal Justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Elementary Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Marketing Communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Nursing (RN-BS).<\/span><\/p>\n

• Physchology.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Social Work.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Technology Management.<\/span><\/p>\n

BSU online Master’s Degree<\/span><\/p>\n

programs are:<\/span><\/p>\n

• Business Administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Special Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Online licensure programs are:<\/span><\/p>\n

• Fastrack Post-Bac Secondary<\/span><\/p>\n

Teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Health.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Special Education: Autism<\/span><\/p>\n

Spectrum Disorders.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Special Education:<\/span><\/p>\n

Emotional Behavioral Disorders.<\/span><\/p>\n

•Special Education: Learning<\/span><\/p>\n

Disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Online certificate programs are:<\/span><\/p>\n

• Camp Nursing.<\/span><\/p>\n

• Online Teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

o<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson has been at BSU for 15 years, with her focus nearly all of that time on online education.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It has been a gradual, but intentional growth. We are trying to reach students who can’t come to Bemidji, and we are reaching them.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We look to expand more and more the reach of Bemidji State,” Johnson said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEMIDJI — Student enrollment in online course offerings — both for undergraduate and graduate-level — at Bemidji State University is growing. And the Arrowhead region, including the Iron Range, is a major force driving that expansion. “About 20 percent of our student population is now taking online courses. There’s quite a group of them … […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22908,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22907\/revisions\/22908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}