OCU will offer its first “Wintersession” of courses over winter break this year.
The university will offer select general education courses online from Nov. 30 through Dec. 18 over the winter break. Students will have the option to take United States History, Governance in America or Methods of Scientific Inquiry. All three courses will be offered at a reduced tuition rate of $350 per credit hour, and each class is limited to 15 seats.
George Sims, interim provost, said the idea to offer a Wintersession came from faculty members from Petree College of Arts and Sciences and was presented to him by Dr. Amy Cataldi, dean of Petree College of Arts and Sciences. He said they plan to focus on courses that meet some of the broadest general education requirements.
“I recognized that with the fall semester ending in November, and the spring semester beginning January the 17th, we’ve got a longer period of time in there than our Maymester,” Sims said. “It’s a unique situation that we’ve got such a long break between the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester, so it was worth a try.”
Sims said Wintersession was a faculty initiative not only because the idea was proposed by faculty, but also because the professors who are teaching intersession courses volunteered for the opportunity.
Dr. Natalia Starostina, associate practitioner of history, is offering “United States History Since 1876” during the Wintersession. She said the course will be very similar to classes this semester, and they will meet on Zoom.
“It’s a real great honor and a wonderful opportunity for me. I’m super excited to teach this course in the Wintersession. I love working with students, and I love the format of this course. It’s a video conference, so I’ll be able to communicate with students and those with remote accommodations can be included in this conversation and not worry about their health.”
Sims said he hopes there will be enough student interest to fill the courses. He said online courses need about seven or eight people in order for students to be able to interact and discuss the course material.
“First of all, let’s say it, we’ve never done this before, so I would have to say I don’t have a whole lot of foundation for having expectations,” he said. “Really, we thought, this seems like a reasonable idea, let’s try it, and if we don’t have many students enrolled, we’ll learn from that and know that’s not such a great idea. I don’t expect there’ll ever be another time when we have from Thanksgiving to Jan 17 off, but I just embrace the idea of possibility here.”
Kaleigh Krimmel, mass communications senior, said she thinks it’s a good idea for the university to offer a Wintersession.
“Especially students that are behind in credits but want to graduate earlier, or just anyone who didn’t do great this semester, that would definitely help them out,” she said. “It’s just such a crazy time, so I think giving the most amount of flexible options possible is really beneficial for our students.”
Enrollment begins Oct. 26, and students wishing to participate in a Wintersession should contact their advisor.
Contributing author: Luke Barrett
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