More adults are returning to the classroom, and Charleston Southern University’s Bachelor of Management Arts program is making it easier for working adults to earn a college degree quickly.
Students with an associate’s degree can earn a business management degree in less than two years and take all their classes online through CSU’s Evening College.
BMA students earn 48 credit hours through BMA’s 16 online Business Cohort Courses, each worth three credit hours. BMA courses are accelerated and five weeks long, CSU’s Dean of Evening College Stan Parker said.
Students meet in a classroom for the first session then meet entirely online in a “virtual classroom” that’s “like a big chat room” for two and a half hours every Wednesday, Parker said. The virtual classroom uses discussion boards for peer-to-peer and faculty-to-student learning, he added. Students are given scenarios requiring critical thinking and take a quiz at the end of every online lecture, he said.
Lectures are in book format while quizzes and chapters are online, keeping students from buying pricy college textbooks and eliminating the “fluff” in traditional textbooks, the dean said. CSU uses the popular Moodle software for lectures, assignments, discussion boards and chat rooms.
“The program developed five years ago based on characteristics of adult learning,” said Parker, who’s worked at CSU 10 years. “Adults have different needs than students.”
The BMA program employs 37 professors and currently enrolls 300 students, including one from Kansas City, Mo. and another from northern Pennsylvania. Fifty-eight BMA students graduated this past December, the dean said. “(We) are trying to help the older student to interchange or advance careers,” Parker said.
BMA students should be at least 23 years of age or older and have three years of significant, full-time work experience.
The program is more accessible than regular classes for adult students who have homes, families, jobs and other responsibilities, the dean said. Parker works closely with students and uses an early warning system if a student needs more engagement. Professors can also meet with students if needed.
According to Parker, a student in an online environment is not at a disadvantage from a face-to-face teacher-classroom environment because some students may not participate in face-to-face classroom activities while 100 percent of online students participate in the virtual classroom.
Reading and writing are more important online, and all research for BMA courses can be done online, Parker said.
The next BMA semester begins Feb. 18 and the next on April 1.  BMA students have May and December off. To graduate from CSU, a student needs 125 total credit hours, including the liberal arts core and electives. For more information, visit www.csuniv.edu.