Serving the needs of students has been the mission at Davis College for more than 110 years. Those needs have changed—and so has Davis.
The school, with campuses in New York and Miami, has found itself drawn into the online arena, filling the gap for students who needed greater flexibility in when courses were offered. The college first created independent study and directed research options, and “we’d have to fit it into their curriculum somehow,” said Dr. Gil Parker, Davis’ Chief Academic Officer.
The addition of online courses, however, offered a more stable way to serve those needs—and Knowledge Elements knew just how to make it happen.
“The price was right, the variety available was incredible, and the choice for our students was phenomenal,” Parker said. “All of their instructors are graduates of regionally accredited colleges and universities with the appropriate degrees to teach what they are teaching. That gave it a lot of credibility.”
With the on-campus courses working in tandem with online, “students are attracted to our college, and attracted more so because of the online opportunities.”
Davis has had particular success in reaching high school students who seek dual credit courses, offering credit at both the high school and college level.
As the online program has shown its worth— as well as contributed to the goals of the college—an atmosphere of expansion has begun. The college will launch a degree completion program aimed at helping many of its graduates with two- and three-year degrees complete a four-year bachelor‘s degree. It also may take the college into New York City, where it sees opportunities to partner with a variety of churches.
“They realize they cannot come onto our campus,” Parker said. “These are men and women who have families and jobs and are heavily involved in their churches. But they want further training. We’re having discussions about how we can help them achieve that.”
In the meantime, Knowledge Elements continues to help Davis further its own mission, as well.
“They see the bigger picture in Christian higher education,” Parker said. “The leadership at Knowledge Elements is on the cutting edge of what is going on in higher education, especially with online learning. They’re always open, innovating with online education. As they’ve been on campus, we’ve found them able to answer our questions and help guide us. Knowledge Elements’ personnel are very flexible, responsive to our questions and the things we need to have, and to make adjustments so their programs work for us.”