Florida College System Gets Access to Online Developmental Education Courses

Florida's high school and college students will now have access to new online developmental education courses from a new grant issued by the Florida Department of Education, according to a press release from FLDOE Friday morning. The departmentseeks to increase the number of underrepresented students who enter and remain in higher education through this grant.

Broward College was selected for the $300,000 grant, which will help with the development for massive open online courses in foundational subjects like reading, writing, and math. Broward College's proposal will use a competency-based approach to assess students' abilities that will ultimately help students focus their time and energy on areas that need the most attention.

The Florida College System seeks innovative ways to deliver content to help students prepare for college-level coursework, said Florida College System Chancellor Randy Hanna. Through MOOCs [Massive Open Online Courses], our colleges will be able to offer courses that help Floridas students master foundational skills in reading, writing and math. I commend Broward College on its strong proposal and look forward to the launch of this MOOC for Floridas students.

In 2010-2011, over 170,000 students enrolled in at least one developmental education course in the Florida College System. The MOOC developmental education courses will help to "increase quality and blend student-learning experiences," according to the FLDOE. St. Petersburg College unveiled a similar program earlier this year and has already enrolled more than 1,000 students.

These MOOCs are intended to assist all colleges in providing students with customized learning experiences to help them succeed in college-credit courses, said Chancellor Hanna. MOOCs are the natural next step for a system that prides itself on innovating and responding to student, community and state needs.