Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike McWherter wants more people to have access to online degree programs but said the state must first push to expand access to high-speed Internet to residents of rural Tennessee.
“If we are going to attract jobs and maintain jobs, higher education will play a big role,” said McWherter, who visited the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Friday to talk with UTC Chancellor Roger Brown.
Brown said expanded Internet access will make it easier for the school to recruit degree-seeking students online. Dial-up Internet connections are too slow for the videos used in online classes, he said.
UTC is moving to put more programs entirely online. The college has worked on creating an online education and criminal justice program, and Brown said officials now are talking about an engineering program run completely online.
“Students are demanding more flexibility,” Brown said.
Joan Garrett has been a staff writer for the Times Free Press since August 2007. Before becoming a general assignment writer for the paper, she wrote about business, higher education and the court systems. She grew up the oldest of five sisters near Birmingham, Ala., and graduated with a master's and bachelor's degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama. Before landing her first full-time job as a reporter at the Times Free Press, she ...
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