"Low Residency" History Masters Programs

by Cliopatria

A query from someone moving to Hilo led me to wonder about on-line MA degrees in history. Researching on-line degrees is a bit like looking for a reputable Viagra dealer, but I did manage, with a couple of minutes of googling, to come up with two"low residency" options that seem credible: Union Institute and University's Vermont College and the University College at Syracuse University [which gets special honors for the Vaguest Name of an Educational Institution]. Both require attendance at some summer sessions, and both seem to require theses. Anyone know of other options?

Of course, we could have the discussion about the"value" of an MA (or, in the case of UC-SU, a"Master of Social Sciences" or M.S.Sc.), but if a person really wants to undertake advanced study and doesn't have access to local options, the technology exists and there should be institutional routes to implement it.

My own department explored the idea of offering an MA in history (probably World History, since we don't have the depth to offer anything much more specific than that). It would have primarily served teachers seeking credentials and advanced study in an important area, and since we are on an island, we gave serious thought to distance learning options. One of my colleagues actually has considerable experience with managing distance learning programs. Alas, the powers that be did not see this as a project worth pursuing unless we could do it"in the normal course" of our labors. Anyone out there who wants to offer us advice on setting up a graduate program in our spare time?

Update: Reader Chris Levesque points us to his program, Sam Houston State's History MA with emphasis in military history (which also gets credit for one of the nicest history department web page designs I've seen in a while), which is a really nice example of a department drawing on its strengths. He also points to the Fort Hays State Masters of Liberal Studies program. I'm quite curious, now, what these generalized MA programs really accomplish, aside from being (and this is worthwhile, of course) a venute for post-graduate study in a low-cost, low-pressure environment.

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Jeff Vanke - 12/10/2004

I should add that some over-bundled university software packages might already include software adequate for asynchronous online education. I'm thinking especially of "conferences" in Lotus Notes.

Jonathan Dresner - 12/9/2004

I wouldn't expect history to be lucrative enough to draw in the for-profit operations, though it could if a truly national market-based group like Kaplan did it right.

I really expected there to be more departments like SHSU and Fort Hays, offering on-line MA programs as a variation on the in-person MA programs.

Your comments about reinventing the wheel are well-taken. Though "outsourcing" activities like this goes against the grain of university practice in most places, and the 'off the shelf' packages have drawbacks and learning curve issues, there really is something to be said for having dedicated professionals handling the technical aspects.

Jeff Vanke - 12/9/2004

I currently adjunct online for Kaplan University. I endorse the quality of education there. Some other accredited online universities are not as easy to endorse.

But I teach second-term composition and a human geography course. The school offers a couple of history courses, but its only liberal arts degree, I believe, is a general associate's degree.

So I wouldn't look to the all-online (& for-profit) places to be offering history degrees soon. The industry is relatively new, and there are more lucrative ways to grow at present, virtually all in more vocational fields.

Offering online education involves economies of scale to maintain the hardware, to service the software, and to staff help desk phone lines. A university trying to start online education might look for consortium partners, and the program should be anchored at a school where IT services virtually never crash. In the event of such pairing, Hawaii students might need to accommodate themselves to mainland service hours. (I currently have a student in Maui.)

And since there's no sense reinventing the wheel, the education provider will probably incur software licensing costs. (That should be a competitive market -- don't let a local IT department think that reinventing this wheel is a good idea.)

Chris Levesque - 12/9/2004

I am just now finishing my M.A. in History at Sam Houston State University (http://www.shsu.edu/~his_www/). The focus is definitely on Military History, altough there are also offerings in Asian, Latin American, and U.S. History to allow students a little freedom of choice. It represented the only way for me both work and take classes, as the local Universities here in Colorado are not really setup to handle non-traditional students. SHSU's program allowed me to stay in Colorado, work a full-time job as a Systems Administrator, and take two classes per semester. I am almost completely satisfied with the education I received while "attending" SHSU.

My only complaint is that you lose a large chunk of the seminar feel. It is much more difficult to encourage the interplay between students and instructors in the online environment. That left me missing the real classroom experience. Of course, I was also rewarded with a lot of flexibility in scheduling.

The classwork was sometimes a burden. An "average" class involved four or five book reviews, weekly discussion questions (and responses), and a final paper or project. So there is a lot of readign and a lot of writing involved, partially to make up for loss of classroom discussion.

The faculty at SHSU was always available for questions, or to help resolve issues. However, you had to be very comfortable on the phone or using email. One of the phone related challenges was taking my oral comprehensive finals December 1st on a conference call. Anyone who has done telephone job interviews will understand how difficult that is. Still, I would definitely recomment the program to people who are in remote locations, or who need schedule flexibility.

Since you mentioned Union Institute, which is an MLS program, people who don't need an M.A. in History might also be interested in Ft. Hays State's MLS with an emphasis with History.

Jonathan Dresner - 12/9/2004

Yeah, we're not going anywhere with it, though there really is some demand, both from teachers and our own history majors, many of whom really don't want, or can't afford, to leave the island.

The Syracuse program seems stronger than the Vermont one, but not by much, and not for someone who might want to go on to something greater. I suspect that both of them draw from some of the same market that we are looking at: teachers who need continuing education credits for certification and MA degrees to advance professionally.

I'm still hoping that someone will read this and come up with a program I missed: I can't believe that NOBODY is doing an honest-to-goodness decent online MA. No, I can; both historians and university administrations are terribly tone-deaf to market and technology issues, as a rule. But it's disappoining.

Jonathan Dresner - 12/9/2004

From the waves of spam (there's an image I'll regret later) I get offering me "cheap and no-hassle" pharmaceuticals, not to mention loan refinances, green cards, rolex watches.....

I wouldn't waste Monopoly money on these people, much less give them credit card information.

chris l pettit - 12/9/2004

It certainly got me interested...but where did you get that analogy? : )

CP
www.wicper.org

Ralph E. Luker - 12/9/2004

It seems to me that your department has done the appropriate thing up to this point; that is, you've let the administration know that you believe there is a market to be served by a program such as this. If its attitude is "Fine. Develop the program, if you will, with current resources," I wouldn't move one step further, if I were you. To do so would suggest that current staff does not have enough to do. I suspect that it does. The administration knows that your department wants to serve community need. If it values that, it will find the resources.
Another reason to be cautious about this, I think, is that the two programs to which you point seem to be to be without much merit. I've had _some_ experience with Union Institute doctoral candidates and, frankly, the ones I've known and worked with, err, haven't been very strong academically. Another yellow light for me is that the Vermont College program's faculty included two Union Institute ph.d.s out of six full time people. Hiring your own may be a sign of self-confidence. It's one thing if Harvard or Cambridge do it; its quite another if Union Institute does it.