With virtual learning becoming more common, the University of Guelph has announced they will soon be offering an online bachelor of arts (BA) degree.
The three-year program is the university's only degree that can be taken fully online. It aims to improve students' critical thinking, communications, research evaluation and intercultural awareness abilities. The program starts this fall.
Byron Sheldrick, acting dean of the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, said the university has been exploring the possibility of an online BA degree program for years.
Currently, U of G offers a wide variety of distance education courses through their OpenED portal. By offering an online BA degree, students from across the country and abroad may have the opportunity to study at the university.
“We had been exploring this before the pandemic hit, but with COVID-19 we realized that developing online resources for people to pursue educational opportunities was all the more important,” said Sheldrick in an email.
“The pandemic has really driven home the need to think about ensuring access to post-secondary education for those who might not be able to travel for school, those who work, and those who might otherwise not be interested in a residential campus experience.”
While it is being offered online, students can also choose to complete some courses in-person.
“Students won't be locked into one format of course delivery,” said Sheldrick further in his email, “This means that for some students, they may choose to do the BA online, but also leverage that experience to pursue more courses face-to-face in the future.”
“Our goal is to be as flexible and accessible as possible.”
College of Arts dean Samantha Brennan, adds this program is a good, general introduction into the arts.
“We’re expecting that most students may well transfer into in-person classes and switch to having a major, and doing a longer degree,” she said, “This gives people the chance to start and try some classes and see what they would like, if they’re not able to be physically present on campus.”
For those who wish to distinguish their degree, this program offers three different certificates in communications, business and public policy and administration.
Brennan mentions students in their general arts degrees are often successful at finding jobs a couple years out of school.
“There are ones, often, that go well with the general arts,” she said about the certificates.
“For some students, this will give them an obvious, career-oriented connection while completing a university degree.”
