Journalism school launches the online 'minimester'

LAWRENCE — The William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications is launching a new online "minimester” to help students meet graduation requirements faster and take advantage of new teaching technologies. From Dec. 30 to Jan. 24, the school will offer compressed, online versions of two popular courses: Visual Storytelling and Multimedia Web Development. Despite the courses’ intense schedule of project-based learning, both filled quickly after they were announced and now have waiting lists.

“Our students’ swift response shows they want new, flexible learning options, and the minimester lets them earn three credit hours in three-and a-half very demanding weeks,” said Ann Brill, dean of journalism. “We hit some important targets with this new offering. We help scholarship students fulfill their annual credit hour minimum, and it’s a good investment of state resources to expand the number of months in which we’re teaching.”

Brill also said that most students are using the minimester to add three credit hours into their academic year rather than simply replace a class in their spring schedule. 

The journalism school worked with Undergraduate Studies and Sara Rosen, senior vice provost for academic affairs, to develop the minimester as a pilot program for intersession courses at KU. “Our hope is to offer intersession more widely, including between the spring and summer terms, as additional schools develop courses,” Rosen said.