Creston, IOWA—Southwestern Community College (SWCC) was recently announced as one of the top 10 Best Online Colleges in Iowa by Value Colleges, www.valuecolleges.com. Southwestern, who came in eighth on the top 10 list, was the only community college to make the list.
Since 2000, SWCC has offered distance education to students through the Iowa Community College Online Consortium (ICCOC). The ICCOC is a group of Iowa community colleges who collaborate to offer online courses and degrees.
Doug Greene, SWCC distance education director, is proud of the online options the college is able to offer to students.
“Because of our partnership with the Iowa Community College Online Consortium, Southwestern is able to offer hundreds of classes in multiple terms, giving our students lots of options,” Greene explained.
Greene said the ICCOC recently changed their platform to an application called Canvas and that has aided online efforts as well.
“Canvas is a national leader in this field,” stated Greene. “This platform has allowed our students to access their courses even more readily, offering students opportunities to connect to their college course work any time and from any location, even from their cell phones.”
Each semester, SWCC offers more than 400 online courses. The college credits earned may be used toward a degree at SWCC or transferred to four-year colleges and universities.
Southwestern offers the following degrees completely online:
• Associate of Arts degree for transfer
• Associate of Science degree for transfer
• Associate of Applied Science degree in business administration
• Associate of Applied Science degree in accounting
• Associate of Science degree in agricultural business
According to Value Colleges’ website, “More than ever before, attending college full time on a traditional campus is not a desired avenue for obtaining a degree for many students …Highly respected and accredited universities and colleges across the nation offer associate through doctorate degrees online and in this Value Colleges Top 10 list you will find the best of the best when it comes to online colleges in the state of Iowa.”
Learn more about SWCC’s online program’s at www.swcciowa.edu/online.
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