Meeting the Future with Online and Graduate Education

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development, CITAL 

Stefanie Heinrich wants to help faculty create high-quality online and graduate courses so that Valpo can meet the future. Stefanie, our new Director for Graduate and Online Education, notes that future trends show that these two areas have great potential for growth. That is because early and mid-career Gen Zers are looking for help in changing careers or earning new credentials, while mid-career Millennials are looking toward graduate education to enhance their career opportunities.  

CURRENT PROGRAMS

Stefanie spent her first few months at Valpo getting to know our 24 current Graduate Programs & Certificates. Here are just a sampling:

  • M.S. in Physician Assistant Studies
  • M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
  • Doctor of Nursing Practice
  • M.S. in International Economics and Finance
  • M.S. in Information Technology
  • Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate
  • Master of Healthcare Administration (online and on campus)
  • Master of Public Health (online and on campus)
  • Transition to Teaching Program (12 months to licensure)

Social Work also has two new programs that Stefanie is excited about. The first is the Master of Social Work (MSW) that began this fall. The MSW sprang out of the existing BSW program. The program uses a cohort model in which all students begin with an in-person component over the summer to build community; then some students remain largely in-person, while others move to fully or mostly online, depending upon their preferences and needs. Starting in Summer 2026, Valpo students who complete their BSW can get their MSW in just one year.  According to BSW Program Director Caroline Ban, this new opportunity has already led to an increase in the number of Social Work students.

Second, Stefanie worked with MSW program director Matthew Ringenberg and Caroline Ban to support the development of a Public Safety Social Work certificate program. This certificate responds to the growing rates of social workers embedded in law enforcement and mobile crisis units. Caroline already has ties to local police social workers and law enforcement because of her research in this area, and several of the public safety social workers in the area are graduates of VU’s BSW program, including Sam Burgett, the first police social worker in Porter County. Local partners have and will continue to be asked to provide valuable insights for this program. This certificate would be one of the first of its kind in the country, and Valpo would offer the program fully online to MSW-level social workers to meet the growing national demand.

While our existing MBA program is well known, Stefanie helped the College of Business revamp their website to highlight the online option for the MBA. This sparked some further work on course sequencing to ensure that working people would find it easier to complete the program. Stefanie stresses that routinely reassessing course sequencing and student-centered approaches is vital to the health of our graduate programs.

FUTURE PROGRAMS

Stefanie keeps up with market trends in higher education, noting what other colleges are offering, what industry wants, and also what students and parents are seeking. This allows her to maintain a list of potential future programs that fit Valpo’s mission and skill set and also correspond to where the market is headed. 

Valpo’s goal should be not to merely react to the marketplace, but rather to proactively create programs that will likely be in high demand and provide positive student outcomes. Here are a few potential programs that are on the top of her mind for consideration:

  • M.S. in Athletic Training
  • M.Ed./M.S. in Education (Instructional Design & Technology)
  • Master’s of Organizational Leadership
  • M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology

As with the Master of Social Work, the current BA in Music Therapy could also lead to a future Master’s program in that field. Stefanie remarked that it is much easier to build a graduate program on top of an existing bachelor’s program so that current faculty can teach in both. It’s an “expanding on what we already do well” mindset.

Universities are at a turning point. In the past we assumed we knew what was best for our students. Going forward, colleges will need to be more responsive to market demands while still maintaining their core mission. Valpo has always been student-centered, so this new approach is actually an extension of that thinking to beyond students’ time at Valpo. We want our graduates to be able to do work they love without being burdened by student loans that they are still paying off twenty years from now.  

Stefanie gave one example of a student-centered initiative: provide students with more options for course delivery. Studies show that even students living on campus want to be able to take at least one online or hybrid course per semester. Our increasing number of commuter students need those options as well. Moreover, many of our future students will be working adults who can only take classes online. Right now, Valpo just does not have the capacity for that, with only 15% of our courses online. 

Stefanie is happy to work with any department or faculty member who would like to expand their online or graduate offerings. And don’t forget that the CITAL team is also here to help you in creating excellent online and graduate classes.