Rosemead School of Psychology’s first online degree completion program received accreditation in January 2016, and now hosts its first students of the online program.

A Hybrid Program

Although the program ran as a hybrid program prior to the accreditation, Rosemead did not realize the Western Association of Schools and Colleges wanted to examine specific programs. Enrollment halted during the 2015-2016 school year while they awaited the accreditation.

“We had to pull back… we couldn’t recruit any new students. It was not until the spring after our full accreditation that we were allowed to resume marketing the program,” said Peter Hill, undergraduate chair of the Rosemead School of Psychology.

A Modest Set of Goals

Unlike larger universities across the nation, their plans include a modest set of goals for this program, according to Hill. For the first year, they want to enroll 20 students.

“Basically, if we’re just looking for 20 students in the first year… I doubt that means we would break even, but we would come pretty close to that,” Hill said. “Then if we could keep that momentum going so that it grows about that rate: 20 students another year… then certainly within just a few years, it is a break even from a budgetary standpoint. So I think those are just reasonable numbers.”

A Geographically Diverse Group

Prior to accreditation,the program required students to come to campus one Saturday a month. Students can now complete the program completely online, allowing for a greater geographically diverse group of students to participate. Hill credits the success of the program largely to Biola’s online learning department.

“I felt like [Biola’s online learning department was] pretty good a couple years ago, I feel like they’re doing their job really well now,” Hill said. “There’s a lot of things that I kind of wanted my hand held by that department, and they have been able to do that with me. On the other hand, they also gave me a lot of independence as well.”

Hill hopes as the first fully online degree completion program in Rosemead and one of the first at Biola, this will mark a new way for Biola to expand its resources and abilities to serve students around the world.

“We’re the first of these programs… we hope whatever mistakes we have made, that the university as a whole can learn from them,” Hill said.