MSU is helping high school seniors advance toward college by providing a new link - Internet courses.
Last semester MSU’s Virtual University began offering Advanced Placement courses to high school seniors in Michigan.
The courses are administered through the Internet and are coordinated by MSU professors. The classes serve as substitutes for those offered in Michigan high schools .
Paul Hunt, vice provost for Libraries, Computing and Technology, said the courses add a new component to MSU’s Virtual University.
“It’s consistent with our land grant mission to make opportunities available to parts of the state where they have not existed previously,” he said. “These courses expand the opportunities that are available to Michigan students.”
Roughly 40 percent of Michigan high schools don’t offer Advanced Placement courses and those that do often offer a small number of subjects, Hunt said.
The university’s courses are not taken for MSU credit, but students may obtain college credits by passing an AP exam at the end of the term.
Byron Brown, a professor of economics who coordinates the microeconomics course, said the courses are similar to those offered on campus, posing a challenge to high school seniors.
“Our subject matter coverage is a little broader,” he said. “For some of the students, this is their first encounter with a university-level course.”
But Brown said the completion rate for MSU’s AP classes is above average. The national rate is about 50 percent, while MSU’s rate is about 80 percent, he said.
And although students who enroll in the courses aren’t required to apply to MSU, officials hope the service will produce more quality applicants to the university.
“MSU is interested in recruiting very strong high school students and this is a means of bringing the university’s programs to the attention of good students,” Brown said.
MSU President M. Peter McPherson said it’s important for MSU to help prepare students for college, and the Virtual University is a good means for doing that.
“I believe that this enriches the opportunities for high school students and I’m pleased that MSU is working with this,” he said. “I think there will be many more students who will be taking them and we’ll continue to look at what courses we are offering.”
Professors also provide curriculum for online AP courses offered to students across the nation by APEX Learning, a Seattle-based company.
