The American Women鈥檚 College Becomes Part of the Largest Course-Sharing Network in the U.S.
In a recent Forbes magazine article from April 6, 2020, the situation has been characterized as “not a mismatch between supply and demand, but a mismatch between supply and student access.” Enter Acadeum, a national organization overseeing the largest online course consortium in the country, which that had already been already collaborating with over 200 universities and colleges, including 国产哟哟’s The American Women’s College (TAWC), prior to the pandemic crisis. In brief, the Acadeum consortium allows for the seamless sharing of courses, revenue, and final course grades. Its goal is to allow students to take online courses through consortium members to complete the courses they need in their major and earn the credit needed to graduate. For example, if a student’s college or university doesn’t offer a specific course during the semester or if she wants to take a summer course, she can take a comparable online course through a consortium member’s institution, just as if she were taking it at her own school. The American Women’s College joined the Acadeum network in Spring 2019 as a teaching institution, offering “seats” in its courses to consortium members’ students as available and providing them the quality online learning experience for which TAWC is known.
Because of the scale of the learning disruption, COVID-19 presents an additional challenge. In the words of Acadeum founder Robert Manzer, “Millions of students who have never taken an online course are suddenly doing so, and many are taking courses that weren’t designed to be online at all. Against that backdrop, many students may not complete. And a growing number of students close to graduation are wondering about the options that exist for them to complete their degree. Today, we are proud to announce that a coalition of 19 universities has launched the Higher Education Course Recovery Consortium, with the goal of ensuring continuity and access for students displaced by the pandemic.”
Students are looking for flexible ways to meet degree requirements and our partnership with Arcadeum will allow us to be part of the solution.
The American Women’s College is a member of this elite 19, chosen because it has passed a stringent and comprehensive quality review that includes course design, evidence of student success, accessibility requirements, and wraparound online student support.
“We’ve been pleased to see our enrollment through Acadeum double from Spring 2019 to Fall 2019 and then more than double this spring—and we are still enrolling for our final session of this semester. These enrollments are an indicator that students are increasingly looking for flexible ways to meet degree requirements, and our partnership with Acadeum allows us to be part of the solution. We’re thrilled that Acadeum recognized our quality online education in choosing us for its COVID-19 response consortium, since TAWC is poised to serve well students whose progress has been interrupted by the pandemic,” states Dr. Maura Devlin, deputy chief learning officer at TAWC.
Undoubtedly, this is a win-win scenario, both for the student and the participating higher education institutions. And it further confirms that not only is online education here to stay in a big way, but that students and institutional partners will increasingly seek quality and proven online learning environments.
Visit www.acadeum.com for more information on this initiative.