The Middle States accreditation allows credits from online programs to be easily transferred to other colleges and universities, the college said. HCC also has a special arrangement with University of Maryland University College that allows HCC students to transfer all their online credits directly into UMUC’s online programs, the college said.
Many of the students studying for an associate degree in business administration are working toward a bachelor’s degree and the online credits are transferable to a four-year program, said Stacey McGee, an assistant professor of business at HCC.
“Most of our business classes have been offered online ... for quite a while,” McGee said. They are particularly popular with working people and the online slots often fill more quickly than traditional classrooms, she said.
“We cap them off because, believe it or not, they’re a lot of work” for instructors, McGee said. There is, for example, a lot of interaction via email with students, she said.
Online classes are capped at about 25 students, McGee said.
For students already in the work force or who have families, online programs can allow them the flexibility to fit in more courses during a semester than if they had to take classes in a classroom setting, McGee said.
“I have people that go online at one in the morning to do their work,” McGee said.
“I could do my school work in my pajamas,” said Wolfe, who began taking some online college courses while still in high school.
She added that finding a parking space is never an issue online.
The college also offers a number of programs for which 75 percent of the course work is offered online, college spokeswoman Elizabeth Stull said.
Those include associate degrees in accounting, English, English education, history, history education, management and political science, according to the college’s news release.
“We are going to be having more and more programs that are 75 percent or 100 percent online,” Stull said.
Learn more
More information about Hagerstown Community College’s online programs can be found at www.hagerstowncc.edu/online.
