For over 20 years, Boise State University’s Concurrent Enrollment has been a leader in offering quality dual credit classes. High school students earn Boise State University and high school credit simultaneously through Concurrent Enrollment with collegiate-level courses offered at their high school.
Creating quality experiences
Boise State’s Concurrent Enrollment seeks to expand and reshape education to reach as many Idaho students as possible.
This year, with disruptions brought on by COVID-19, many courses had to shift online, impacting lab curriculum for students along with other financial difficulties. Students enrolled in the introductory Biology 100 and Accountancy 205 classes could no longer rely on high school labs. With the biology and accountancy classes, the lab content is cloud-based, allowing students to receive their content with an access code.
Concurrent Enrollment decided to cover the costs of accountancy and biology labs, saving students and their families anywhere between $20 and $90. Providing accountancy and biology labs at no cost ensures that any enrolled student receives a quality experience and curriculum resources regardless of course modality.
Any enrolled student receives a quality experience and curriculum resources regardless of course modality.
Chemistry courses serving rural Idahoans
Through a partnership with the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance, Concurrent Enrollment began offering Chemistry 100 Concepts of Chemistry to high school students four years ago. Part of the requirements for the online chemistry course was a $20 lab kit. Concurrent Enrollment decided to pay for the lab kit upfront to maintain the quality and consistency of labs for all students, regardless of financial means.
The decision to cover these costs for students alleviated stress over having to declare financial hardships. With lab costs covered and other curriculum shifting to online delivery, fall semester enrollment increased by 127 percent compared to 2019.
While the pandemic slowed the mail delivery of chemistry lab kits, the instructor focused on lectures first and delayed labs, maintaining a quality course experience for students until the labs arrived.
“The online introductory Chemistry 100 class has an especially broad-reaching aspect,” said Director of Concurrent Enrollment Fabiola Juarez-Coca. “There are students enrolled from as far away as Dietrich, Arco and Idaho City. The benefit of providing online Concurrent Enrollment classes is the ability to reach rural students.”
“The benefit of providing online Concurrent Enrollment classes is the ability to reach rural students.”
Continued support for education
The goal of Concurrent Enrollment is to help high school students experience university curriculum, build their self-confidence and thus prepare them for their future university life.
Concurrent Enrollment is committed to supporting high school students and their families by providing the necessary resources. The program aims to set a foundation to provide resources without requiring students to share their family’s financial struggles.
“Overall, Boise State Concurrent Enrollment has invested $26,800 in educational costs to ensure that a total of 745 high school students have access to university-level curriculum delivered online in chemistry, biology and accountancy,” said Juarez-Coca.
The continual investment into resources like lab kits and cloud-based access codes provides students across Idaho with a robust educational experience from Boise State.
Story by Erin Taylor for Boise State Extended Studies