"Finish Line" Featured in UK Online Learning Journal
UMBC case study title: "Inclusive excellence online"
The current issue of Advances in Online Learning: A Peer-reviewed Journal (Vol 2. 2023-2024, Number 1) has recently published a case study about UMBC's Finish Line program, entitled "Inclusive excellence online: Pandemic lessons learned supporting traditionally underserved students."
Co-authors Ken Baron, John Fritz, and Yvette Mozie-Ross collaborated on the case study, originally published online (free to subscribers) by Henry Stewart Publications. It is also available here with permission from HSP.Abstract When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all higher education pivoted to online learning, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) created 'Finish Line', a programme designed to help former students with some college, but no degree to complete their studies, often several years after they had left the institution. More than 200 students have done so to date, which was a surprising pandemic silver lining for an institution with fewer than 5 per cent of all courses delivered online before 2020. But was Finish Line just a temporary strategic initiative to get through a global health crisis? Or could it also be a proof of concept for how to meet and support 'non-traditional' adult learners where they are -- and want to go? In this reflective case study, we offer candid lessons learned to go beyond the logistics of an enrollment management strategy of 're-recruiting' former students through the affordances of online education to reassessing and redefining our 'inclusive excellence' mission in a post-pandemic, often digital-first world.
Posted: October 18, 2023, 9:49 AM
