It had been talked about for a while – moving classes on line, but the pandemic accelerated that process.
For students planning on making the trek to the UW-Madison campus for a couple weeks to take part in the annual Farm & Industry Short Course programs – plans changed. Jennifer Blazek, coordinator of FISC, says that they’re offering just two programs for students this fall because of the on line platform. Introduction to Soils and Business Principles were the easiest lesson plans to move on line. By spring, Blazek says she hopes they’ll be able to offer Business Management and Risk Management courses as well.
Blazek says she’s actually fairly pleased with the enrollment for this fall semester, which began on Monday. There’s 22 students enrolled – 2 are out of state and half are females. The other interesting note is that 5 students have already accomplished some form of higher education. Blazek says the on line platform allows them to be a part of Short Course when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend.
There’s also the business of running and maintaining Short Course. Blazek says because of great financial support from alumni and industry, they’ve been able to offer a substantial amount of scholarships to any student interested in the programs. Tuition and donations are the sole funding mechanism for Short Course.
