VSU’s new Online College of Career Advancements has been approved by the Board of Regents as of April 13.

The college will include eight undergraduate programs that begins in summer 2021.

Rodney Carr, vice president for student success, is the director of the new online college. He began the development of the college two years ago with other institutions while discussing other options.

“We were discussing with other institutions about how to reach out to Georgians for their education needs,” he said. “We also know now that there is over 67,000 Georgians that are choosing to use online education in institutions outside of the state of Georgia.”

According to Carr, VSU wasn’t meeting the needs of students through the current online programs in VSU.

He said that VSU was meeting the needs through their face-to-face programs. However, they wanted Georgians to build an education around their life by meeting certain needs through online education.

“They probably stomped out of college, or got families, or they’re working or life is getting in the way,” Carr said. “We wanted to design a program that would help meet those needs in that desire.”

Students that are part of the program will take two eight-week courses at a time. This is designed to give a flexible academic load and to have the students graduate in a timely manner as if they were in a traditional semester, according to Carr.

The new program will also be among the most affordable program in the nation with $299 per credit hour, which should not change in the foreseeable future. The price will also include all course material, and students will not be charged any addition fees.

These prices are compared to other programs outside of Georgia, like SNHU with $320 per credit hour and additional fees.

The online college’s programs include B.A. in Management, B.B.A in General Business, B.S. in Organizational Leadership, B.S. in Psychology, B.S.E in Elementary Education, B.S. in Criminal Justice, B.S. in Computer Information Systems and B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies.

“The university is excited about this,” Carr said. “I can tell you that it’s been two years of a lot of dedicated hard work by a lot of our faculty and staff behind the scenes, looking into this. Designing a program that is truly designed around student’s success, our excitement is not just for Valdosta State, it is for the students that we can impact through this and the lives that we can change in this process.”

Story by Kilie Huckleby, Campus Life Editor. Photos courtesy of VSU.