MTSU Online
"We’ve built one of the largest adult degree programs in Tennessee."
With a distinguished 20-year history of high-quality distance education, MTSU Online continues to support our faculty and to serve students through the creation, design, and delivery of effective and engaging online and blended learning environments.
And when Newsweek named MTSU to its “Top Online Colleges” list in 2022, our University was the only institution in Tennessee recognized.
We’ve built one of the largest adult degree programs in Tennessee. At MTSU, we provide access to undergraduate and graduate programs for students who might not be able to pursue traditional attendance paths. This includes online instruction.
This past calendar year, MTSU Online set records for total online enrollment, number of online courses, number of student credit hours online (57,720), and number of online degree programs.
These record numbers are a credit to our faculty who have been willing to serve our students in new and innovative ways. This is also a credit to our MTSU Online staff and instructional designers as they assist and coach faculty toward high-quality online teaching and learning environments.
Two years ago, in response to student demand, MTSU Online began an initiative to increase the number of completely online degrees. Thanks to the hard work of our faculty, staff, and administrators, we have increased from 16 to 32 completely online degrees.
Our goal is to ensure MTSU is ready and available to provide an education for every student who is seeking to learn, regardless of their geographic location. In 2022 alone, MTSU Online funded 29 full-time temporary instructors for 18 departments across campus. These instructors are trained in online teaching and give significant help to departments that are serving online students.
A key distinction this year has been our significant expansion of peer mentoring for faculty around online teaching. Through our expanded online faculty mentor program, dozens of faculty members have engaged in individual and group activities as they learn about and investigate best practices in online teaching.
We support faculty through a range of services such as course design help, faculty training workshops, individual consultations, and extensive web-based resources. Our three instructional designers (IDs) are key resources for faculty as they develop and deliver classes online. In 2022, our IDs helped design 102 new online courses and redesign an additional 70 courses. MTSU now has a portfolio of more than 750 well-designed online courses to contribute to student access and success.
In terms of student support, MTSU Online provides personal assistance to hundreds of students via phone, email, and videoconference meetings. Live and online tutoring is a popular service we offer, as well as advising help, counseling services, and assistance navigating the online course environment.
total online courses
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APRIL
MTSU Returns to the Grammys
True Blue returned to the Grammys in full force Friday, April 1, as MTSU resumed its annual pilgrimage to the music industry’s biggest showcase to celebrate alumni nominees and provide students career-building experiences.
For instance, five Media and Entertainment students helped prepare the MGM Grand Conference Center for the 31st annual MusiCares Person of the Year benefit gala honoring legendary performer Joni Mitchell.
COVID-19 concerns in 2021 broke MTSU’s seven-year streak of hosting Grammy site events and lining up student experiences. The pandemic also delayed the 2022 event by three months, forcing it away from Los Angeles and to Las Vegas for an open venue.
Grammy Factory
There were no trophies to bring home in 2022 to polish, but the work of MTSU graduates still shone at the 64th annual Grammy Awards, announced April 3 in Las Vegas.
Nine MTSU alumni were nominated in genres ranging from pop to roots gospel to traditional blues to Latin music for their work on projects released between September 2020 and September 2021. MTSU nominees and their categories were:
- 2015 alumna Maria Elisa Ayerbe engineered Colombian Paula Arenas’ Mis Amores album.
- Tony Castle, a 1995 graduate, engineered Willie Nelson’s That’s Life, Nelson’s second tribute collection of Frank Sinatra’s music. Castle also was a nominee for engineering Blues Traveler’s latest release, Traveler’s Blues.
- Billy Hickey, a 2006 alumnus, was nominated for his work on Ariana Grande’s Positions.
- 1994 graduate F. Reid Shippen was nominated for engineering country standout Mickey Guyton’s release, Remember Her Name.
- 2000 alumnus Jason A. Hall and 2014 grad Jimmy Mansfield were nominated for engineering the Brothers Osborne’s Skeletons.
- 2000 alumnus Wayne Haun, a producer/songwriter, was nominated with his longtime collaborators Ernie Haase & Signature Sound on their roots gospel album, Keeping On.
- And 2003 graduates Ceylon Wise and Ashley Brooks Wise were part of the best children’s music album-nominated compilation, All One Tribe.
"Oscars" of Education
Two MTSU College of Education alumni were recognized in April 2022 for their superior teaching, each receiving a Milken Educator Award—known as the “Oscar” of education—and the $25,000 cash prize that accompanies the honor.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn attended assemblies at the award winners’ schools to surprise the two outstanding educators.
The winners were Raeven Brooks, second-grade teacher at Black Fox Elementary School in Murfreesboro, and Tyler Hallstedt, eighth-grade history teacher at Mount Juliet Middle School in Mount Juliet.
Their wins put Hallstedt and Brooks in an elite group of only 41 winners from across the country in 2022.
The Milken Family Foundation created the award and prize money 35 years ago to recognize early and midcareer teachers for their already-impressive achievements and the promise of their future accomplishments.
Brooks, a Murfreesboro native, started teaching in 2016 at Black Fox Elementary after graduating with an MTSU degree in Early Childhood Education. She will graduate with her Administration and Supervision master’s degree from the University in spring 2023.
Hallstedt transferred to MTSU after a move from Michigan and earned his degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on social studies in 2013.
