Online Classes

Pursuing a graduate degree usually means a big payoff for your future but it can feel counterintuitive to take off a whole year or two from your career. That’s where part-time degree programs come in. Earning your degree as a part-time student means you can continue to work while you gain relevant skills to move your public sector career forward. But there’s more to it than just avoiding a break in your resume.

Between websites, social media, emails and snail-mail, the sheer volume of available information about master’s degree programs can make a prospective student’s head spin—or, worse, it can overwhelm that candidate into forgoing graduate school altogether.

September 15th is National Online Learning Day. Recognition of online learning is especially relevant this year after the pandemic and resulting school closures exposed many more people to online learning. If the pandemic had happened 20, or even 10 years ago, the quick pivot to online learning would not have been possible. Existing technology, resources, and online pedagogy have advanced to the point that it was possible to provide education to most students and to keep them from missing a year of schooling.

Online learning provides convenience and personalization for every learner. Online learners can broaden their horizons and achieve their goals by:

Did you know that Kent State University has 16 fully online undergraduate degrees? Learn more about all our online graduate degrees below.

Did you know that Kent State University has 30 fully online graduate degrees? Learn more about all our online graduate degrees below.

Working together to create knowledge is a fundamental Higher Ed goal. Ever since Socrates peppered people with questions instead of just wowing them with his wisdom, we’ve been aware of the importance of being actively engaged in our own learning.

June 15th is designated as nature photography day by the North American Nature Photography Association “to promote the enjoyment of nature photography and to explain how images are used to advance the cause of conservation and protect plants, wildlife, and landscapes both locally and globally.”

Calling all music teachers!

Sometimes you are challenged to think about who you are and who you aspire to be. This particular challenge came to me from our office marketing director in hopes that I would #ChooseToChallenge by writing a blog entry about my experiences in higher education and share my thoughts and experiences with women who want to move into leadership in higher education.

In the movie, 39 Steps, Alfred Hitchcock introduces us to a vaudeville performer, Mr. Memory, who has the plans of an advanced airplane engine committed to memory. Clearly, the plans are something of great concern and central to the plot. Upon reflection, however, although the plans seemed very important and provided an impetus forward from one scene to another, at the conclusion, we don’t know, or really care, what the plans were or how they were used. The secret plans were just there to propel us forward. Hitchcock often used a plot device referred to as a MacGuffin as a secret motivator in his movies.

I used to participate in Adventure Races. The races varied, but included activities such as kayaking, repelling, cycling and orienteering. I participated in these with good friends and now when we have too much wine, we enjoy retelling stories of these races as if we had been serious athletes pushing the boundaries of physical prowess. I’ll just assume you understand how far this is from the truth.

In the podcast, The Last Archive, Jill Lepore promises to “trace the history of evidence, proof, and knowledge, in troubled epistemological times”. Are we living in troubled epistemological times? Why didn’t I receive some kind of alert on my phone?

Somewhere in the process of navigating COVID19, I latched on to the idea of a 1-hour walk every day. So far, I’ve been pretty consistent. It didn’t take me long to realize that podcasts and audiobooks were wonderful motivators for taking a walk. I am continually amazed at the brilliance of the creative people producing these for my enjoyment. This discovery led me to walk more and write a blog where I could work through the many inspiring ideas.