Students receive in-person support while pursuing online agricultural degree
Students in the close-knit community of Klamath Falls have only one local option for pursuing a four-year degree. Those who want more choices, have to leave home. Not everyone, however, can leave their families and jobs.
But now they can pursue their dreams thanks to a program that gives Klamath Community College graduates the chance to work toward an OSU online bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences. OSU Open Campus launched the program in 2013. Students take classes online through OSU’s Ecampus program and also meet on the KCC campus and get face-to-face support from faculty at KCC and OSU’s Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center. They can customize their curriculum, emphasizing fields like animal science, crop and soil science or agricultural business management. Some students also intern at the center helping, for example, researchers with their work on potatoes, wheat and barley. So far, four students have completed internships there. Local Extension staff mentor all of the students.
Six students enrolled in the program the first year; enrollment jumped to nine the following year. Three graduated in 2014.
Sources: Keely Moxley, coordinator for OSU Open Campus in Klamath County; Willie Riggs, director of OSU’s Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center
