ONLINE GENERAL BUSINESS DEGREE COMPLETION
Strategic Planning Detail
Objective: Offer an accredited online General Business major for transfer students with an associate’s degree beginning in the Fall 2016 semester.
This objective relates to Barton School Goal #3 - To increase the Barton School national ranking by 2019
Action Item / Deadline / Person ResponsibleFeasibility Analysis
· Discuss concept with Dodge Community College Dean of Enrollment1
· Meet with advisors and faculty of the 19 Kansas community colleges and the director of eduKan2 to discuss the concept
· Survey current Kansas community college business students (and alumni, if possible) to assess their interest in a Barton School degree completion program / completed
August 2014
August 2014 / Larry
Larry & John
Larry & John
Offer an online section of the following courses
Upper-division Prerequisites
· BADM 301 / Fall 2015 / Janet Jensen
· PHIL 3063 / TBD / TBD
Business Core Requirements
· MKT 300 / completed / Robbie McKee
· ENTR 310 / Fall 2016 / Chris Broberg
· IB 333 / Fall 2014 / Kate Kung-McIntyre
· FIN 340 / Fall 2016 / Peggy Ward
· DS 350 / completed / Mehmet Barut & Sue Abdinnour
· MGMT 360 / Summer 2014 / Bobbie Knoblauch
· MIS 395 / completed / Steve Helm
· BLAW 431 / completed / Larry Spurgeon
· MGMT 681 / Spring 2015 / John Perry
General Business Requirements
· MKT 405 / Fall 2014 / Robbie McKee
· MGMT 462 / completed / Gerald Graham
· HRM 466 / completed / Bobbie Knoblauch
· IB 6004 / Fall 2016 / Masud Chand
Directed Elective Requirements
· FIN 610 / completed / Larry Spurgeon
· FIN 632 / completed / Rodney Boehme
· TBD5 / TBD / TBD
Determine how to give online students priority to online sections6 / Fall 2016 / John
Promote the program to the 19 Kansas community colleges / Spring 2016 / Larry & John
Notes
1 / Based on discussions with the Dodge Community College Dean of Enrollment and Mark Pocaro, the WSU Director of the Office of Online Learning, we learned that establishing a 2+2 partnership with Kansas community colleges might facilitate community college students transferring to the Barton School. The Kansas Board of Regents has approved 48 courses that are transferable between KBOR schools. This transfer and articulation agreement facilitates community college students transferring to KBOR universities. A 2+2 partnership further eases transfer between KBOR community colleges and universities. Here is a link to an explanation of Kansas State’s 2+2 partnerships. A 2+2 partnership between the Barton School and KBOR community colleges might help a General Business degree completion program.
2 / eduKan is an organization created by the six western-most Kansas community colleges that offers online lower-division courses
3 / The PHIL 306 (Business Ethics) course is currently being evaluated as a requirement for Barton School students
4 / There are a lot of international students who major in International Business, who take IB 600. International students are limited to one online class per semester, and students who have scholarships through the Saudi Cultural Mission are limited to 12 hours of courses online for their entire program of study. Therefore Masud would like to offer at least one in-class IB 600 section per semester. Because Masud teaches IB 836 every semester, he would be willing to offer an online IB 600 section, but it would be an overload course for him.
5 / The Directed Elective Requirements for the General Business degree require “Upper division business electives from the following business disciplines (must be spread over at leasttwodisciplines): decision sciences, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, management information systems, or real estate.” – Currently there are two upper-division courses (HRM 669 and MKT 609) that are offered online. But these courses do not meet the Directed Electives Requirements.
6 / If on-campus and online students have equal access to register for online course sections, these sections may become filled with on-campus students before online students have the opportunity to register. The first WSU online programs (the RN-to-RSN program and the Aging Studies programs) have begun to work with the WSU Registrar to create an “online” attribute that will allow online students to have priority in registering for online sections. Hopefully this issue will be resolved before Fall 2016.