Department of Anthropology Chair, Dr. Jodie O’Gorman
Summer of 2013 the department launched the seventh and eighth courses in our planned expansion of online course offerings. These courses are important for a number of reasons. In today’s world many students find an online course helps them fit more into their schedule, graduate sooner, and some simply prefer the venue. Some students find online courses give them more, or a different kind of opportunity to be interactive with their instructor and classmates. There are also innovative ways of presenting content that are not possible in a classroom setting.
Our graduate students teach most of these courses in the summer, and several have helped develop online versions of courses. This experience is important in today’s job market where such skills are increasingly in demand. Another undeniably important aspect of these courses is that the MSU system is set up to allow the summer online courses to bring revenue to departments. With the continued trend of marked reduction in public funding for universities, this revenue source is essential to our mission.
In the near future, we will call on other sources of support and expertise, including our alumni, to further strengthen the department and insure that our students continue to experience exemplary instruction, personalized mentoring, and experiential learning in foundational anthropological skills and technological advances.
[This article is featured in the Winter 2014 Department of Anthropology Newsletter]