BENEFITS OF ONLINE LEARNING

Open the “Door” to Your Online Class
Envision yourself sitting comfortably in front of your computer. You’re dressed casually—no suit, tie or business attire. It’s 9 p.m., and your time is your own. You can focus and concentrate completely on the discussion topic or assignment for your online class.

You sign in and your classmates greet you online. Now you notice the discussion topic your class is covering in a threaded message board, and you have an important point to contribute. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in the front row or whether you catch the prof’s eye—you submit your thoughts and ideas to the message board and everyone in your class will be able to read it in real time or at their own convenience.

Later, you need clarification about a specific assignment, so you decide to contact your professor. No worries about whether you will catch him during his office hours—you just shoot an email to him or send an instant message. In a matter of minutes, you’ve got your answer, clearly spelled out and available for you to read now or check at another time.

Welcome to your online classroom—learning that’s available when you are, wherever you are. Business trip coming up next week? No problem—you’ll be able to access your class from any site with a high-speed Internet connection. Getting your master’s degree can’t get any more convenient.

How It Works
Congratulations! You’ve applied to The University of Scranton Online and you’ve been accepted. In just two years, you will receive your graduate degree from one of the world’s top-ranked universities.

Our online programs offer six terms of eight weeks each per year. The terms begin on Monday and end on Sunday, scheduled consecutively except for a one-week break at the end of April and a three-week hiatus at the end of December. You can take courses at the comfortable pace of one per term in order to complete the 39 credit hours required for your online MS in Human Resources program or 36 credit hours required for your online MBA program. Depending on your work experience and/or undergraduate preparation, you may need to take one or more foundation modules in the business program. If this is the case, your program could extend up to 48 credit hours.

Like any graduate course, you will have weekly assignments and deadlines that you can complete at a time and place of your choosing. Online courses are delivered using the Angel Learning Management System—recognized by colleges and universities as one of the best providers of online education.  You will be able to interact with your peers and professors by e-mail, threaded discussions in online forums, virtual chat sessions and instant messaging. Your group projects will require interactive participation as well. Even though you are not in a physical classroom, you are not isolated from your classmates or professors—contacts are just a click away.

Should you experience any problems with accessing your coursework or submitting text in a message board, we have professional technical support available to assist you and answer your questions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While you don’t need to be a computer expert to take courses online, you will need to be familiar with the following programs and software:

• Internet Explorer (6.0 or above) or Firefox (1.5 or above) — cookies must be enabled.
• Microsoft Office programs to include Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Some Management Information Systems courses may require Access.
• Free plug-ins for viewing course files such as Macromedia Flash, Adobe Acrobat, Windows Media Player and QuickTime.