Wabash College is helping students this summer get their educations back on track.
It is the first time the college has offered online summer courses for current students. The courses are designed to help students who had a difficult time earning credits during the pandemic.
The college is offering four courses from different departments: ENG-202 Writing with Power and Grace, PSY-105 Fatherhood, HIS-102 World History Since 1500 and ART-209 Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Art.
All courses are intensive. Some courses have finished, while others are ongoing. Each course meets from 90 to 120 minutes several days a week. Only a few students are able to take more than two classes because the schedule overlaps and it is not feasible to do class work in a short time.
Muhtasin Rahman Ashfi, a rising senior from Bangladesh, is one of the students taking two courses this summer.
“I needed to catch up to my credits because during the COVID year, I felt behind a little bit,” he said. “I chose two classes because both interested me. The English class interested me because I want to learn how to write better and the title seemed very interesting. I also chose the art class because I have never taken an art class before.”
As an international student who does not have a place to stay in the U.S., Ashfi traveled home and attended classes virtually at midnight. By enrolling in the summer course, Ashfi will be able to avoid taking six classes each semester of his senior year.
“I am really thankful that Wabash gave me this opportunity because I would have to spend a lot more money looking for classes elsewhere or I would have to have a really difficult senior year,” he said.
Wabash students are able to take the summer online courses for $500 per credit hour and receive textbooks for free due to the support of Mellon Foundation.
“The grant was specifically written with the proposal that we would offer several online courses over the summer and the intention was to give students a chance to perhaps catch up on credits,” said Jonathan Jump, Registrar and Associate Dean of Wabash College. “These summer courses cost the students a lot less than one of our regular courses in the fall or the spring would.”
Some students take online courses from other institutions — a common practice for those who want to catch up or graduate early. However, Jump believes there are many benefits for the Wabash students taking the online summer courses.
“That is better for both them [students] and us [faculty and staff], and we can feel confident about the level of education they got in the course that they took,” he said. “They do not have to go to the trouble of having to apply as a temporary student at a different college. No worrying about getting a transcript sent back to get the credit and everything.”
Students and faculty have been doing online classes since the pandemic happened, so the transition to summer courses was easy.
“For me, it was really nice to focus on one thing at a time,” said Crystal Benedicks, Chair of the English Department.
Benedicks is one faculty member who decided to offer a class for students this summer.
“Over the past year and a half, people have been really hard hit by COVID and a lot of people’s lives were derailed and there are a number of things that I can’t do to make that better,” she said. “But one thing I can do is offer a class in the summer for people who might have fallen behind.”
The last time Wabash College offered summer programming to help students earn credits toward graduation was during World War II.
“Wabash College had a Navy. It was called the V-12 program and it was education for those who would be Navy officers,” said Beth Swift, the archivist.
Jump hopes the summer online courses are successful.
“I think it represents a good opportunity for our students to solidify and improve their academic standing, which in some of their cases might have been affected by the conditions created by the pandemic,” he said.