University of Illinois at Springfield online enrollment increasing at 30% per year

UIS continues to offer quality, high demand online programs resulting in dramatic increases in enrollment over the past several years. Online programs offered include the bachelor degree completion programs Liberal Studies, English, Computer Science and History. Master degree programs include Management Information Systems and Educational Leadership. A graduate certificate in career Specialist Studies is also available.

UIS Online is part of the University of Illinois Online initiative, established in 1997 to coordinate and support the three U of I campuses in their efforts to serve the needs of place-bound or time-restricted students, in the U.S. and internationally. Since UIS began offering classes online in fall 1998, online enrollment has increased dramatically each semester – during the 2003 spring semester there were 1,430 online enrollments, compared to about 200 in spring 1999. This past spring, one out of every four UIS students took at least one class online and one out of every eight took only online classes.

In June 2002, UIS received a $500,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to develop six new online degree programs over three years. The degrees are to be primarily in the arts and sciences to build on the campus’ liberal arts emphasis. The online baccalaureate completion degrees in History and Computer Science are part of that development. At the time the grant was received, UIS officials predicted that online enrollment would double in three years and triple by 2007.