How University of Florida Offers Lifelong Learning for Online Alums
This article by Michael Weigold originally appeared on Media Shift on Sept. 29, 2015.
The University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications has just launched a program that allows graduates of its online master’s degrees a chance to continue engaging with online classes for the rest of their lives. It gives access to high-quality, lifelong learning. It ensures that the knowledge and skills we provide our graduate students need never rust. And we are offering it for an annual cost that is less than that of a single graduate credit. We call the program Master Access, and it is the first of its kind at UF.
Why did we launch this program? Because we are committed to our students and alumni and because we think it helps make our distance graduate degrees stand out.
Lifelong learning delivered online is still a fairly recent innovation in higher education. But as leadership consultant Brian Tracy has written: “Lifelong learning is the minimum requirement for success in your field. Since information and knowledge in every field is doubling every 2–3 years, this means that your knowledge has to double every 2–3 years as well, just for you to stay even.”
And few fields challenge their workforces more to keep pace than communication. Hundreds of thousands of talented communication professionals finished their education before the revolutionary changes brought by digital technologies took root. Companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Instagram did not exist when these people graduated with degrees in advertising, public relations, journalism, telecommunication or related fields.
