FAQs About Distance Education
More information about Distance Education is available at www.dce.ksu.edu or by calling 1-800-622-2KSU.
- What about general education requirements?
- The courses required by your major are offered in partnership with the College of Human Ecology and the Division of Continuing Education. General education requirements for your degree are completed through distance courses offered at K-State or transferred to K-State from another institution. Many students find they like taking their general education courses through traditional face-to-face courses offered through community colleges or other institutions close to home. These courses can later transfer to K-State.
- How can I make sure credits taken at other universities transfer?
- In many cases, students learn about our programs after they have already completed college credit at another institution. When this happens, they must work with their advisors to determine what will transfer and what remains in order to graduate from K-State. But early planning can save you a lot of heartache! If you decide you want to pursue one of our distance programs, planning ahead can save you a lot of time and money. Talk to your K-State advisors before enrolling in general education courses through other institutions. They can tell you upfront what transfer courses will count towards K-State requirements. You should also visit K-State's Transfer Equivalency site.
- How do Human Ecology distance graduate programs work?
- K-State is a lead institution with the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (aka Great Plains IDEA). This is a consortium of universities that pull together expert faculty in the same discipline at different universities to mutually offer the courses required for an entire distance degree program. It allows the group of universities to offer programs they wouldn’t have the depth of faculty to offer individually. So, some of your courses will be taught by K-State faculty, while others might be taught by faculty at Colorado State, Michigan State or even Oklahoma State. And, you will form relationships with classmates living all over the world. What a great way to build a global network!
Students apply to a home institution, which is the university that eventually will award the degree or certificate. At the end of the semester, grades are reported on the transcript at the home institution. The K-State Division of Continuing Education handles K-State’s enrollment and administration of Great Plains IDEA programs. More information is available at the Great Plains IDEA website.