Cornerstone University President Gerson Moreno-Riaño explains the school’s SOAR program, which offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business through a mobile app.
Americans who want to earn a degree at their own pace can now do so through their mobile phones na Cornerstone University has tailored the degree offerings in its business program to accommodate students who prefer a self-paced program that can be completed on a smartphone.
Moreno-Riaño said the program launched in August and has enrolled about 250 students. Students in the so-called SOAR program can earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in strategic business management, or a master’s degree in organizational leadership.
“One of the great things we’ve seen is that the month-to-month persistence rate is 91%, so students are sticking with it and completing it,” he said, adding that some students who transferred with previous credits to pursue a degree will be the first graduates of the program this year.
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The SOAR program allows students to work on learning material in small portions on their smartphones. (iStock)
Moreno-Riaño said Cornerstone’s award is for its SOAR bachelor’s degree is $24,000 from start to finish, while the master’s degree is $12,000.
“More than half of our current students enrolled in the program now pay no tuition due to grants and scholarships.”
“We see this as an opportunity to address a gap in our country in education, and quite frankly, we believe that the current U.S. higher education infrastructure cannot meet this challenge. It was built for what I call traditional brick-and-mortar students,” he said.
“We thought: how can we deal with this ubiquitous piece of technology that everyone has, that everyone spends a lot of time on? On average in our country we talk about more than four hours a day that adults are at ease. mobile devices.”
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Cornerstone University’s SOAR program allows students to earn degrees on their mobile phones outside of a traditional classroom. (iStock)
Moreno-Riaño said Cornerstone tested the app with about 120 students for over a year, which informed the university’s process for reviewing and launching the SOAR app.
He said Cornerstone has major concerns about how it is reaching nontraditional students and disenchanted students, some of whom have not tried to earn a degree, while others have tried a traditional college experience and are unwilling to return.
Moreno-Riaño said that when Cornerstone mapped out the program, it understood that the traditional 120-credit curriculum in a course couldn’t be mapped to a mobile app, so the school tried to unpack these courses into “bite-sized chunks of educational content.”
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Cornerstone University’s SOAR program offers accredited bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business, Moreno-Riaño said. (iStock)
“In the app there will be mini-lectures, podcasts, book reviews and interviews, all with very rigorous, carefully designed learning objectives throughout the program,” Moreno-Riaño said, explaining that some lectures can last between 5 and 10 minutes.
“We have built in micro-tests that are immediately assessed and feedback is given to the student.”
Some of the program’s first graduates told Moreno-Riaño that they listened to some lessons along the way commutingwhile traveling or doing household chores.
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“It essentially allows them to continue the learning experience amid a complex schedule as we unbundle, unpack, redevelop and maintain the engagement criteria so that students continue to study and stay focused,” he said.
