As students begin to register for classes Monday, the Office of Academic Outreach at the University will offer new “self-paced” courses for students needing flexible class credit.

The new courses cover a broad range of academic subjects and are meant to be completed over the course of a semester, said program director Deborah Windes. While students can turn in required coursework and tests at their own pace, classes cannot be completed before six weeks into the term.

“Some students think they can do it faster than six weeks but end up realizing they can’t manage it,” Windes said. “Most students go through school having teachers telling them to come to class and turn assignments in on time, so they don’t always know how to do things on their own.”

Windes said the course listings for the self-paced courses went up over the weekend, and will be available to students Monday.

While the term “self-paced” is the program’s new designation for this style of coursework, the distance learning option has been through several incarnations.

“Basically, the self-paced courses come out of what used to be called ‘correspondence courses,’ which the University offered in the 1930s,” Windes said. “About 15 years ago, we began moving these courses online.”

In recent years, the courses have been known as Illinois Courses Online, or ICON, and Guided Individual Study, or GIS.

Windes said earlier years saw a much different group signing up for distance learning courses.

“Back when I started working with these courses in 1986, the program mainly saw prisoners sign up to take classes,” Windes said. “Enrollment has changed a bit since then.”

Although finding the discipline to complete required readings and assignments can be challenging, Windes said self-paced courses help students develop important qualities such as self-motivation.

The courses are open to high school students, adult professionals and students from other universities; but marketing director Arathi Kylasam said most enrollment comes from the campus area.

“We have also run ads on other campuses, but they haven’t been as successful,” Kylasam said. “Many people come from our own backyard.”

Kylasam said while University students have the largest enrollment numbers, business professionals also appreciate the flexibility of self-paced courses.

“Many times, we see professionals who are looking to get college credit but can’t fit traditional classes into their schedules,” Kylasam said.

One major challenge in designing a course online is giving students the proper types of feedback to foster learning. Windes said self-paced courses use blogs, student-collaborative Web sites and online forums to create interactions between students.

“The discussion board format helps students who might otherwise speak up because of shyness or difficulty thinking on their feet,” Windes said.

Unlike older online course formats, Windes said self-paced courses avoid simply mimicking a traditional classroom experience.

“We don’t want to just show the students a video of a professor talking in front of a lecture hall,” Windes said. “Professors have even told us they try to integrate some of our techniques into their classes.”

Jenny Lee, junior in LAS, said an online course she took through a community college was more engaging than traditional class work.

“I took an econ class and it was really informative and up-to-date on related news,” Lee said.