Starting this summer, Loyola will follow an upcoming national trend: creating online classes.

“Online learning is part of a growing national trend, and the quality of online courses varies dramatically from institution to institution,” said Melanie McKay, special assistant to provost and coordinator of summer sessions.

“We have developed an outstanding model for online classes, one that maintains the same academic rigor that characterizes our traditional courses,” she said.

Loyola is offering over 40 different online classes to students this summer, ranging from introductory to graduate level.

“Summer (online) classes give students the chance to take courses — required and elective — in an intensive format,” she said.

Students can choose from a variety of courses, including entrepreneurship marketing, history of the Holocaust, criminology, music therapy and a drama seminar on dialects.

According to McKay, students will take courses through Blackboard, using various forms of presentations, assignments and student/teacher activities.

Professors will also use streaming videos to broadcast lectures, films and student presentations, she said.

Students taking online courses will be interacting with professors and other students through Blackboard’s discussion board, she said.

“The interactive feature is key to the online course experience, as it involves students actively with their professors and their peers,” McKay said.

Students, taking summer online courses, will be paying 25 percent less compared to the average semester course. Each summer course is $614 per credit hour versus $821 per credit hour during the regular semester.

While online classes are cheaper, McKay said that students should consider limiting themselves to one online course.

“We strongly recommend taking only one online course as they are time-intensive,” she said. “In some cases, departments allow students to take two.”

Online summer courses are eight-week sessions, beginning on June 1. Each course is limited to 20 students. The deadline for registration is June 2.

Online courses were developed for students spending the summer away from Loyola.

“We wanted to open up more options for our students and these courses are not conceived as a substitute for our on-campus summer school program-most students who take summer courses do so on campus,” McKay said.

“(These courses) are for students who return home or travel during this time-the online courses provide an ideal opportunity to earn Loyola credits wherever they are,” she said.

For students missing credit hours, McKay said that online courses would allow them to make up for dropped courses or semesters when they have carried less than a 15-hour load.

The online summer program began in 2007, starting with a small number of courses. In 2008, Loyola offered 16 classes, a variety of major and common curriculum courses.

“The response from students and faculty was so positive that we began expanding our program,” McKay said.

Kieu Tran can be reached at [email protected].