Fresh off a spring semester with on-campus classes called off and coursework moved to remote delivery, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is continuing with online education through the summer.
Early enrollment for summer classes this year is up more than 10% over last year, according to Amy Goodburn, UNL's senior associate vice chancellor and dean of undergraduate education.
"I don't know if I expected it, but we kind of hoped for it," Goodburn said. "We knew a lot of students' other choices would be canceled — jobs, internships, study-abroad trips — and we wanted to offer some bright light for them to continue to make progress toward their degree."
Much of the growth in summer enrollment comes from students choosing to take multiple classes.
While the headcount of students participating in summer classes rose from 8,925 to 9,045, based on figures available last week, the number of credit hours taken has grown from 35,175 to 39,211, according to James Volkmer, UNL's interim assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management.
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Volker characterized the growth in student credit hours taken this summer as "fairly significant."
The numbers also don't include new students who will have the opportunity to get a head start on their college education by enrolling in summer classes before starting at UNL this fall through the Husker Starter Pack, Volkmer said.
UNL expanded its course offerings this summer, focusing mostly on what Goodburn described as "bottlenecks" for students, or high-demand classes students need to advance in their degree program that can be hard to get into throughout the year.
The university also asked faculty for pitches on new summer classes incorporating different content areas and delivery methods.
More than 100 courses were added to the summer catalog, including some coronavirus-themed classes:
* Global Pandemic News in the Age of Social Media will seek to bolster students' media literacy skills and teach them how to identify verified information vs. misinformation online.
* Saving the World plans to study how countries have responded to past pandemics and why international collaboration is important. The class will involve faculty from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and community leaders.
* Special Topics in Civil Engineering will replicate an internship experience for civil engineering students who were unable to participate in one because of COVID-19 by moving projects solicited by community partners and government agencies through the design process.
Goodburn said UNL's faculty developed summer courses with the social-distancing requirements of COVID-19 in mind, which will change the dynamics of how they operate.
"We've always done online instruction, just not at the scale we did it this spring," she said. "These courses are designed to be truly online vs. remote instruction, which was what was happening in the spring."
UNL and the rest of the University of Nebraska system announced in April they plan to hold classes on campus this fall. But to cut back on class sizes and adhere to public health guidelines, classes may become more of a blend of in-person and online instruction.
But Volkmer said it's too early to tell just what shape education at UNL will take this fall.
"Nationally, you'll certainly see more online programs, and our faculty have worked tremendously hard to get to where classes are available remotely, so we'll have them available in the future," Volkmer said. "We have that nimbleness and flexibility now."