Colorado State Becomes The Newest Public Online University

One more big state university is taking the dive into online education, with a focus on teaching for working adults. Colorado State University says it will spend $4.5-million to build an online university called “CSU-Colorado,” It will be created and promoted mainly through the state’s system of community colleges, and is slated to open in 2008. According to CSU’s Chancellor Larry Penley, the new distance learning initiative will offer college diploma online degrees to underserved student groups including people who are “single parents, self-supporting, working part-time, working full-time while enrolled in school and/or geographically isolated.”

Colorado simply doesn’t have the money to build enough campuses to serve all it’s potential college students. Because of a growing population, demand for college and university degrees in the state is expected to more than double in the next 20 years.

The new online college will seek full accreditation for state university reviews, online diploma, online deg and other tests of learning quality from national accrediting groups. It will attempt to be the state’s most cutting-edge school in terms of adapting the curriculum and college degree diploma online offerings to make education more relevant to the workforce and employers. Colorado’s move to become an online state university follows similar big moves by the University of Illinois and The University of North Carolina.