Contact: Leah Barbour
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A new online bachelor's degree available at Mississippi State is geared toward working adults seeking to become certified business and technology teachers.
The Technology Teacher Education Distance Learning Program is an extension of the university's longstanding TTE bachelor's curriculum. During the upcoming fall semester, the complete program will be available online for the first time, said professor Connie M. Forde, head of MSU's instructional systems and workforce development department.
Since online coursework begins Aug. 16, interested individuals are being encouraged to enroll as soon as possible at www.distance.msstate.edu.
In addition to receiving a Bachelor of Science and national certification in computer literacy, graduates will be certified to teach online. The TTE program will prepare participants to teach at the middle or high school levels.
"The teacher who graduates from this program can teach technology at the middle school and all of the business classes, including economics, at the high school and at the career and technology center, including the career and pathways experience course," Forde said.
The online program will be administered through the College of Education, with the campus Center for Distance Education providing support and assistance for the distance-learning students, Forde said.
"We will still have the face-to-face program, and we'll run it simultaneously with the distance program," she explained. "We will now be able to recruit students from all across the state and beyond and provide quality business teachers for many school districts."
Michael Busby, distance education manager, said the online program was specially designed for working adults.
"We believe that the market for this program is set for adult students. The target is the adult student who might want to go back to school to earn a degree and become a teacher," Busby said. "They might be in full-time positions that they cannot leave, or they might be former community college students. They're people who, for whatever reason, cannot come to campus."
During the final semester of coursework, however, participating students must complete a required teaching internship in a classroom setting five days a week for the entire semester. Forde said both a cooperating teacher and an MSU supervisor oversee the classroom internship.
General education coursework necessary to completing a bachelor's also is available online and supported by the Center for Distance Education. Community college courses may be transferred.
In addition to the above-listed website, additional information may be obtained at www.distance.msstate.edu/teched or by contacting Forde at 662-325-7258.