San Jose State is expanding its fully online program that launched last August.
Educational and community leadership senior Christopher Padua said he is grateful he doesn’t have to walk on to SJSU’s campus.
“I do find myself being really grateful that I may never have to step a single foot on campus if I genuinely never wanted to,” he said.
Padua said although he lives 15 minutes away from campus, he doesn’t have to attend in-person classes because he attends classes online.
“Regardless of whether I lived in San Jose or not, SJSU Online affords me so much flexibility that I otherwise may not have had,” he said.
Sarah Gordon, managing director for the SJSU Online Student Success, said SJSU Online is an initiative to expand access to higher education through online schooling.
She said the program is targeted toward students who are considered “non-traditional” or “adult learners students.”
Gordon said there are many students who have completed college courses in the past, but were unable to complete their degrees because of unforeseen life circumstances.
She said many of these students are working full-time and may also be providing for their own families.
“It's just, you know, a way for students to fit in, you know, the coursework and the learning into their already busy lives,” she said.
Gordon said because of the way the classes are designed, students are able to complete their course load on their own time instead of at designated times of the day.
Padua said he prefers the modality because it allows him to balance time between having two jobs and a social life.
“Whether I'm at home or outside just constantly thinking of, you know, when my homework is due and when I [get it] done, as well as when I need my work to be done,” he said.
Padua said the classes he is taking through SJSU Online are different from the courses he took during the COVID-19 restrictions.
“In contrast to my regular classes from when we were online during the pandemic . . . my teachers have a [much] firmer grip on using Zoom,” he said.
Ronald Rogers, vice provost for academic innovation and institutional effectiveness, said it’s important to distinguish between what happened during the COVID-19 restrictions and what SJSU Online is attempting to achieve.
Rogers said during the coronavirus pandemic, the online classes were built quickly, in a reactionary state, because the university was forced to shut down campus.
“[We were] kind of forced to get professional development to try to figure it out,” he said.
Rogers said at the beginning of the pandemic, many professors tried to teach online classes the same way they were teaching classes in person.
He said SJSU Online is designed with the goal of trying to do something different.
“We have a very intentional approach, and we're employing the best practices and instructional design, and instructional technology to really create an optimal online learning experience for students,” Rogers said.
Gordon said one of the main benefits of having SJSU Online available for students is it brings education to an “entirely new and different audience.”
Rogers said being able to come to campus in person is a privilege.
“You have to be able to get yourself there. You have to be able to afford to take the time to do that in the middle of the day,” he said.
Rogers said the University of California system is planning to discontinue all of its online classes for undergraduate programs.
“So it really falls upon the California State University system and campuses like San Jose State to create those pathways and to open up access,” he said.
Rogers said SJSU Online gives students who previously left the university an opportunity to come back and finish their degree.
“The reality is that we have this very large population of potential learners who aren’t able to finish their degree,” he said.
Rogers said these courses are created in partnership between faculty members and an instructional design team to help create online courses from scratch.
Padua also said there is still a social aspect involved when taking online courses.
“Obviously, I may never meet my classmates in person, but I’ve honestly met a lot of . . . good friends or classmates that become friends because of something that I see behind them,” he said.
Padua said he once made a friend because he recognized in their background that they owned an arcade cabinet for a Ninja Turtles game.
“The social aspect is still there,” he said. “I mean, [we still can] make side jokes.”
Padua said he can still interact with his friends online by messaging other students.
He also said another benefit to taking online classes is he can come to office hours in his pajamas.
“And then after the meeting, I’ll go eat and then take a nap,” Padua said. “There’s less work to do in an online environment is what I’m trying to say.”
Sarika Pruthi, associate professor and program director for the College of Business, said her college is developing courses with SJSU Online for the upcoming Fall 2023 semester.
Pruthi said asynchronous teaching is not new to her faculty members, but they wanted to make sure certain aspects of online learning were explained.
“We wanted to make sure we laid out our own expectations,” she said.
Pruthi also said she and her faculty members want to communicate that they are serious about their courses being rigorous.
“You know, we want the faculty to establish academic rigor as they do in other classes,” she said.
Pruthi said the instructional design team wants three to four months of development time with her faculty members to develop the courses and to make sure they understand what tools and techniques are available to them.
She said in Fall 2023, the College of Business will be offering online courses from the general business concentration.
“Given the population that we are serving, I think it's very exciting. This initiative is really tremendous because it gives students the opportunity to come back,” Pruthi said. “These are the ones who have not had a chance to complete their degree.”
She said their goal at the College of Business is to allow students to be exposed to these opportunities as much as possible within the constraints of mostly asynchronous classes.
“It opens up new doors, gives them networking opportunities,” Pruthi said.
