CSN: Nevada’s virtual college campus

The fall 2012 CSN Foundation newsletter is about technology that creates state-of-the-art, virtual learning environments for our students inside classrooms.

I want to talk about what College of Southern Nevada technology is doing for Nevadans outside of our facilities.

CSN's Online Campus is the college's fourth and fastest-growing campus. In fact, CSN offers more online classes and has more online students than any other Nevada public higher education institution.

This fall, preliminary numbers show that 13,800 students are enrolled in at least one CSN online course, a 3 percent increase from last fall.

Online courses were first offered at CSN in 1997, and the number of courses offered and students enrolled has grown each year as our community continues to demand more online content. In 2008, we officially created the CSN Online Campus, from which we offer a variety of student services, including free tutoring and counseling.

To enhance the quality of these courses, CSN is part of a statewide consortium to provide faculty with online course evaluations, based off Maryland's Quality Matters rubric.

That does not mean you will ever see the end of on-site classes. As long as there are courses that are better taught and students that learn more effectively on campus, CSN will continue to provide on-site courses.

Many don't know that the same great CSN faculty who teach on campus, teach our online courses as well. Because you cannot teach the same course the same way online and on-site, our faculty work very hard to create effective online, one-of-a-kind curricula. They provide meaningful and interactive experiences that students can take from any location and at times that fit their schedules.

Technology has allowed us to transpose even traditionally classroom-bound courses like public speaking and nursing to the Internet.

But all of this technology does not lead to better graduates. Our people do.

And CSN has great people.

The dean of the CSN School of Advanced and Applied Technologies, Dr. Michael Spangler, is a great example. He has not one but two Ph.D.s from Iowa State University. He flips burgers alongside our vice president of academic affairs, Dr. Darren Divine, at campus events, regardless of the temperature.

Then there is Kevin Mess, CSN's software program director. As a teenager, he taught himself 6510 assembly language with his first computer, a Commodore 64. Later in life, Mess got his master's degree in applied computer science and traded an exciting international career, piloting classified government flights, to pursue his true passion of teaching computers and programming.

Or there's biology professor Dr. Denise Signorelli, a self-described "gene jockey," who has won awards for her cancer research, work which she incorporates into her CSN curriculum.

At CSN, one of the largest community colleges in the nation, we are putting good technology and good people together to develop critically thinking, professional and highly skilled students that will help our state progress with alacrity.

With this state's continued support of our mission, CSN graduates will develop our next innovations, maintain our future technology, administer new medical treatments and help you and me progress with grace.