Southeast Missouri State University’s online bachelor’s degree programs ranked 28th nationally and highest among Missouri schools, according to a recent U.S. News and World Report listing. Southeast’s online master of business administration program was ranked 82nd.

Allen Gathman, dean of online learning at Southeast, said the recognition affirms the roughly 18 years of work the university put toward building its online-instruction capacity.

He said the university’s first foray into internet learning was building secure gradebooks for faculty, followed by a handful of other applications that laid the groundwork to support entire online courses.

“Piece by piece, they’d created a learning-management system online. Then somebody realized, ‘Gosh, we have enough to put an actual course online,’” Gathman said.

The first smattering of online classes came in 1999.

One of Gathman’s biology courses was one among the initial dozen courses; he recalled his students appreciating the flexibility online courses afford.

Soon, teachers across departments were creating online courses. Southeast began offering its first fully online degree in general studies in 2003.

“It’s sort of grown organically,” Gathman said. “People just started saying, ‘Hey, I could do that.’”

Since then, the university has switched from its online management system to a more popular education platform, Moodle, and offers more than 30 online degrees.

In 2015, about 22 percent of credit hours at Southeast were completed online.

Gathman said faculty have realized there are some applications where online courses have the potential to enhance student engagement.

He said students uncomfortable with participating in a classroom may find it easier to voice their opinions on a discussion board.

Timothy Judd, professor of biology at Southeast, said he uses online resources to save students money.

Because he posts photos and video of coursework and resources online, he said his students in some cases no longer have to purchase costly books, such as the atlas of invertebrate zoology.

Chelsea Caile, director of Southeast’s online programs, said some of the biggest gains have been in public perception.

She said online learning used to have more of a stigma, as though people feared their employers might not value an online degree as much. But about 18 months ago, Southeast signed several corporate partnerships that allow companies such as Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center to sponsor employees seeking professional development via online courses.

Analysis provided by the university also showed student outcomes in online courses did not show a statistically-significant deviation from outcomes in a face-to-face setting.

Gathman said this suggests students who take online courses aren’t missing out on learning or disadvantaged by not being in a classroom.

Southeast also is using online courses to reach out to high schoolers, offering dual-credit classes to students in areas where teachers may not be qualified to teach dual credit.

By having a Southeast faculty member teach while the high-school teacher acts as facilitator, students in areas of Missouri such as Farmington, Zalma and schools in the Bootheel can enroll for college credit.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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