SUNY Canton expects to break records with online Winterterm classes

CANTON — Students stuck in a blizzard won’t have to worry about making it to class this winter — that is, not if they’re among the 1,300 to 1,400 students expected to enroll in SUNY Canton’s online Winterterm session.

The school, which once again is offering a wide range of online courses for Winterterm this year, is expecting record enrollment during the December-to-January session. While the college began offering a fully online winter session in 2005 with only 18 classes and 160 enrollments, it has seen enrollment grow by 10 to 40 percent annually, with a high of nearly 1,200 students last year.

“We have everything from financial accounting to anatomy and physiology, a host of business courses from principles of retailing to business law and introduction to business, all the way up through chemistry and seven or eight different economics courses,” said Kyle A. Brown, SUNY Canton director of information services and online learning. “We’re really offering these courses because there’s a demand from students at other institutions to take these courses and have them transfer back to their home institutions.”

More than 100 winter courses will be available to students from public and private universities, with graphic and multimedia design, finance, nursing, computer science, criminal justice, mathematics, health services, foreign language, sports management and social sciences courses offered. More than 80 percent of the college’s Winterterm enrollments come from schools outside SUNY Canton, with students from more than 200 institutions signing up for transferable credits in years past.

Students will pay a special online tuition rate for the winter courses, with each credit hour costing $175. According to Mr. Brown, a typical three-hour credit course will cost $525 and require about five hours of daily study, as it will include 15 weeks of material condensed into a four-week term.

“There’s a lot of benefits for the students. We’re finding these days there’s a lot more students that are working full time while they’re going to school in the fall and spring,” Mr. Brown said. “This really gives them the opportunity to fulfill their obligations and take courses that they couldn’t otherwise take.”

While students are allowed to take only six credit hours during the winter session, the independent structure of the online classes allows them to fit their academic work into busy schedules. According to Mr. Brown, this in turn helps students meet graduation requirements while saving on transportation and living costs and allows them to spend time with their families during the holidays.

SUNY Canton already has seen 505 students enroll for this year’s Winterterm classes, as opposed to 290 at the same time last year. Registration is still open, with the session beginning Dec. 21 and concluding Jan. 17.

“The Winterterm at SUNY Canton has really proved popular for many reasons. First and foremost it has to do with reputation,” Mr. Brown said. “We’re a trusted name and a reputable offer for courses. We offer what students need, and we can give these students courses for transfer back to their home institutions.”