The only online Spanish master’s degree program in the country, based at New Mexico State University, gained a large amount of new students after national exposure at a conference over the summer.
The program experienced an 87 percent increase in enrollment after being introduced to active professionals at the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese conference, a gathering at which most attendees are high school teachers, according to a University Communications press release.
“One of our target audiences is high school Spanish teachers,” said NMSU Language and Linguistics Department Head Richard Rundell. “This is the first program of its kind in the United States.”
The program was started in spring 2008 by the NMSU Language and Linguistics Department to accommodate potential students who cannot pursue their master’s degrees on campus.
“We wanted to reach out to folks who have wanted to complete a master’s degree but haven’t been able to due to whatever their location is,” Longwell said.
The online program now boasts a headcount of 15 degree-seeking and 30 non-degree-seeking students compared to the traditional on-campus program with 25 degree-seeking students, Longwell said.
Students in the online program come from 38 different states in the U.S., and other countries, including Guam, Argentina, Mexico, Egypt, Brazil and Colombia, according to the press release.
Contrary to popular belief, getting a Spanish degree does not only involve learning how to speak the language, Longwell said. The program is also content-based and comparable to majoring in English, in which emphasis is placed on the study of literature or the structure of the language, Longwell said.
Students may take up to nine credits before they are required to declare a specialization, either in linguistics or literature, according to the press release.
The program offers three classes every semester, including the summer session. However, four classes are scheduled to begin next summer to allow students to choose from two linguistics courses or two literature courses, Longwell said.
The program costs the same as in-state tuition, and students are allowed to take a maximum of six credits per semester, Longwell said.
“We try to keep the online courses as rigorous with almost the same content as face to face classes,” Rundell said. “But we try to keep [the classes] convenient.”
Eligible applicants must have a bachelor’s degree in Spanish or at least 12 upper-division college credits in Spanish, Longwell said. More information on the program, including an application, can be found at www.nmsu.edu/~langling.
Tom Sandford is a staff writer and can be reached at trunews@nmsu.edu
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