E-Learning Program Provides College-Prep Courses to Mississippi Delta Students

USA Funds^® provided a $50,000 grant to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning to partner with Delta State University on its e-learning-center project. The center, located on the DSU campus, aims to allow school districts in the Mississippi Delta to offer selected college-preparatory subjects that those schools otherwise could not provide.

The e-learning center currently offers Spanish courses to more than 200 students at four Mississippi Delta high schools and one high school in Okolona, Miss. Master teachers broadcast five online classes daily from the e-learning center to the local schools, where approximately 25 students per class receive instruction. E-learning facilitators, usually teacher’s aides, are at the local schools to facilitate class work. The aides ensure that the broadcast equipment is operational and oversee administrative aspects such as completing attendance logs, distributing materials, and serving as monitors during test taking.

This year marks DSU’s second to offer courses through its e-learning center. In 2004 the school conducted a pilot program, which included two schools and 60 students. Expansion of the program already is under way, with plans for a second master teacher to begin broadcasting physics courses this spring.

While two broadcast studios currently are in use at the e-learning center, the facility can accommodate six studios. As project funding increases, plans call for six master teachers to broadcast five classes daily to the local schools. If teachers instruct 50 students per class, the e-learning center could reach 1,500 students each semester.

“We are thrilled and grateful to USA Funds for the opportunity not only to fulfill Delta State’s mission to reach the people of this region but also to be able to offer necessary programs to young people who would otherwise not have access,” says Lynn House, dean of the DSU College of Education.

According to House, because many schools in the Mississippi Delta area are in extremely rural and isolated areas, the schools have enormous difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified teachers.

“The courses available through the e-learning center open new horizons for Mississippi Delta students,” House says.

“Mississippi students who receive better instruction in a wider variety of college-preparatory courses in their high-school years stand a much better chance of being admitted to college and succeeding there,” says Carol Mead, director of public information for the Mississippi IHL.

The Mississippi IHL provides guidance and management for the public universities in Mississippi and works to encourage that state’s youth to pursue postsecondary education.

USA Funds’ grant to the e-learning program is consistent with its mission to enhance postsecondary-education preparedness, access and success, particularly in the eight states that it serves as the designated guarantor. USA Funds is the designated guarantor of federal education loans in Mississippi as well as Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Nevada and Wyoming.