A new health sciences degree program at the University of Minnesota Rochester will combine online and in-person learning to help students complete their studies in just over two years instead of four.
St. Cloud State University and Minnesota State College Southeast are adding more flexible classes where students can learn in person one day and tune in remotely the next.
With more than a year of online learning under their belts, colleges in Minnesota and nationwide are reimagining the menu of options they offer to students.
"The name of the game for us in higher education is going to be flexibility. It's going to be really trying to serve the students in the way that they want to be served," said St. Cloud State Provost Daniel Gregory.
Some colleges are launching their first-ever online and hybrid degree programs, while others are working to make more of their existing classes forever capable of switching between remote and face-to-face learning. Their efforts signal a permanent embrace of the changes they were forced to adopt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though students have flocked back to college campuses this fall in numbers not seen since before the pandemic, many schools are finding the demand for the alternative learning options they offered still exists. For many students — especially those who have children, health issues or full-time jobs — flexible learning has made a college degree more attainable.
Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis recognized this and quickly moved to create its first two fully online degree programs. Starting this fall, Dunwoody is offering online bachelor's degree programs in architecture and construction management to students from across the country. The construction management offering is a degree completion program meant for students who've already taken the necessary hands-on courses at a two-year college.
Dunwoody administrators tout the programs as a barrier-free option for students and working professionals.