Coppin State Tries Online Bachelor Degree To Improve Retention

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 05/31/12

Coppin State University, pushing to increase its graduation rate above 20 percent, has entered into a partnership with Pearson Education to launch an online bachelor's degree--a first for the Baltimore university. The public institution, which has about 3,875 students, will launch the new program in September 2012. Pearson will provide almost 50 online courses, as well as customizable digital textbooks, on-demand tutoring, and other services.

The college, which is one of 105 historically black colleges and universities in the United States, has been struggling in recent years to improve its student retention rate. According to coverage in The Baltimore Sun, the university's six-year graduation rate has hovered below 20 percent for several years.

The school is hoping that the new online program will lend more flexibility to students in how they complete their studies. In a recent survey, nearly nine out of 10 students at Coppin said they'd enroll in an online course. "Many of our students come from diverse ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds," said Ronnie Collins, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. "This online program will provide students with more options to complete their degrees and move on to successful careers."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • glowing brain, connected circuits, and abstract representations of a book and graduation cap on a light gray gradient background

    Snowflake Launches Program to Upskill 100,000 People in Data and AI

    Cloud data platform Snowflake is embarking on an effort to train and certify more than 100,000 users on its AI Data Cloud by 2027. The One Million Minds + One Platform program will provide Snowflake-delivered courses, training materials, and free access to Snowflake software, at no cost to learners.

  • two abstract humanoid figures made of interconnected lines and polygons, glowing slightly against a dark gradient background

    Microsoft Introduces Copilot Chat Agents for Education

    Microsoft recently announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new pay-as-you-go offering that adds AI agents to its existing free chat tool for Microsoft 365 education customers.

  • hand touching glowing connected dots

    Registration Now Open for Tech Tactics in Education: Thriving in the Age of AI

    Tech Tactics in Education has officially opened registration for its May 7 virtual conference on "Thriving in the Age of AI." The annual event, brought to you by the producers of Campus Technology and THE Journal, offers hands-on learning and interactive discussions on the most critical technology issues and practices across K–12 and higher education.

  • Three cubes of noticeably increasing sizes are arranged in a straight row on a subtle abstract background

    A Sense of Scale

    Gardner Campbell explores the notion of scale in education and shares some of his own experience "playing with scale" — scaling up and/or scaling down — in an English course at VCU.