{"id":114347,"date":"2020-10-12T12:08:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T16:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347//?p=114347"},"modified":"2026-05-26T09:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T13:21:23","slug":"ucf-online-celebrates-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347//ucf-online-celebrates-milestone/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Online Celebrates Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Access to a quality online education is more important than ever as the pandemic continues to affect the country. At UCF, that access continues to grow./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

This semester, the university hit a milestone /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2013 more than 100 programs are now available fully online./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201cUCF has been a leader in this field for more than 20 years, and since day one we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2019ve been committed to high-quality online education,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201d says Tom Cavanagh, vice provost for digital learning. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201cNo matter how many programs we continue to add, that commitment to quality will never change./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

Since UCF Online was formalized in 2016, enrollment has steadily grown year after year. Cavanagh attributes its success to UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2019s emphasis on training faculty to be effective online teachers and integrating digital learning into the culture at UCF even before the pandemic./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201cBefore March, 86 percent of our students took at least one course online or blended every year. Almost 50 percent of our credit hours were online or blended before everyone transitioned online in March,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201d he says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201cTeaching students online is something that was embedded at UCF, and it is done at the same high quality that you would expect from our face-to-face courses./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

Quantity with an emphasis on quality/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

That mindset and experience has paid off dividends as higher education has had to quickly shift gears in the wake of COVID-19. While many schools around the country grappled with struggling enrollments as a result of the pandemic, UCF Online saw an 18 percent increase from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

UCF Online currently offers 25 bachelor/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2019s degrees, 34 master/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2019s, three doctorates and an additional 41 graduate certificates. Eleven new certificates were created specifically in response to workforce demands created by COVID-19./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

U.S. News & World Report recently ranked UCF among the top 20 Best Online Bachelor/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2019s Programs in the nation for the third consecutive year, enabling students from anywhere in the world to enroll in fully online degree programs./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201cOur goal has been to try to reach those non-traditional students who can/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2019t access education in any other way and need the flexibility that online education offers,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u201d Cavanagh says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

Bright future/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

Taylor Banfield is one of those students. The 25-year-old needed to balance her coursework with her job as a server to put herself through school and says UCF Online allowed her to do both./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n

She is months away from earning her bachelor/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/u2019s degree in health services administration after persevering through a seven-year journey that saw financial hardship early on and a boating accident last year that landed her in the hospital for two weeks./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/114347/n