Shorter College offering Online Calculus Classes

March 4, 2010 - Shorter College’s Department of Online Programs has partnered with Massachusetts-based Distance Calculus to offer current Shorter students and new students a chance to take college level math and computer science courses online.

Distance Calculus, founded in 1998, by Drs. Lee Wayand and Robert Curtis, has previously offered its courses through Suffolk University in Boston, Mass. However, through this new agreement, these courses will now be offered through Shorter College instead. The program is expected to launch March 8y, 2010. As part of the agreement, Dr. Robert Curtis will join the Shorter faculty. Dr. Curtis earned his Ph.D in pure mathematics from the University of California, San Diego in 1993.

According to Sean Butcher, director for Shorter’s Online Programs, the Distance Calculus program will target students who need to pick up a course in calculus. “An example would be a student who is accepted into an MBA program and must have a calculus course to meet a pre-requisite,” Butcher said. Traditional Shorter College students will be allowed to sign up for Distance Calculus as well.

Distance Calculus classes are offered asynchronously, providing working students with an opportunity to complete their calculus course load without having to alter their work and life schedules to attend fixed lecture times and course meetings, said Dr. Curtis.  Students, on their own schedule, watch lecture and tutorial videos, experiment and explore with the mathematics software, and complete both hand-written and computer-based assignments for grading by the course instructors, he explained.

Another unique aspect of this distance education program is the flexible enrollment system: students may enroll at any time during the year, independent of the academic calendar. Students communicate with the instructional team via chat and email, by submitting software "notebooks" of student work and by creating videos of manual homework solutions, all at an intensive communication level, which replaces the "face-to-face" meetings in a classroom environment.

Distance Calculus offers courses in Precalculus, Calculus I/II, Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Probability Theory, Statistics, and Applied Calculus, as well as introductory programming courses in Computer Science. These courses are offered to students in the United States and throughout the world. Utilizing the core software technologies of LiveMath (which is also produced by Distance Calculus) and Mathematica (produced by Wolfram Research) and the combination of curriculum written by Robert Curtis as well as the Calculus&Mathematica courseware series, the courses emphasize a technological approach to the subjects, while also retaining and reinforcing an appreciation and mastery of the classical approaches.

For more information about Distance Calculus and other courses that Shorter College’s Online Program offers, contact Butcher at online@shorter.edu.

Founded in 1873, Shorter College is a Christian college committed to excellence in education. Since 2003, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Shorter among the South’s best baccalaureate colleges. The college offers traditional bachelor’s degrees in 48 major areas as well as undergraduate degree programs for working adults, the Master of Business Administration and the Master of Arts in Leadership. Online courses are also available. Shorter will transition to university status June 1, 2010. For more information, visit www.shorter.edu.

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