An Incremental Approach to Distance Education Offerings at the University at Albany, SUNY, School of Public Health

A pioneer in distance education, the University at Albany, SUNY, School of Public Health began offering asynchronous online courses in the late 1990s, approximately a decade after the School first opened.  The School gradually built a set of these online courses, offering its first fully-online graduate certificate program in fall 2004 and its first fully-online graduate degree program in spring 2012.  The controlled growth from individual courses, to a certificate program, to an entire degree program allowed the School to plan and implement the programmatic infrastructure necessary to develop, launch and maintain fully-online graduate program offerings.  Currently, the School offers two graduate programs entirely online: Certificate in Public Health Fundamentals and Principles and Master of Public Health (MPH) in Public Health Practice.  The development of two additional fully-online graduate certificates is nearing completion.  The relationship between the Certificate in Public Health Fundamentals and Principles and MPH has been particularly beneficial, as it offers students an opportunity to “test the waters” and serves as a feeder into the MPH program.   The certificate consists of six MPH core courses (18 credits), providing a foundation in the functions and applications of public health.  Comparable to the School’s traditional on-campus MPH concentrations, the online MPH in Public Health Practice consists of 51 credits including core, advanced and elective courses as well as an internship.  Both programs are structured for part-time study, accommodating working professionals.  Since its inception in spring 2012, there has been a greater than 709 percentage increase in enrollment in the online MPH program, from 11 students in spring 2012 to 89 students in fall 2015.  Thirty percent of the online MPH students first completed the certificate program.  This presentation will highlight key features of the online programs and lessons learned as the School developed its portfolio of distance education offerings.