TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hillsborough College is offering over 1,100 Flexible Start classes this coming semester, with more than a quarter of its enrolled students taking courses that condense a traditional 16-week schedule into shorter periods of time.<\/p>\n
The classes include five- and 12-week options, along with other condensed formats. The college said that about 100 of the flexible start courses are offered as hybrid classes, with one day on campus each week and the rest online. Another 900 classes are offered completely online.<\/p>\n
Christopher Reed, a Hillsborough College student in his last semester, said the format helps him stay on track as he works toward transferring to the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, I\u2019m doing business admin and once I transfer, I\u2019ll get into supply chain management,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n
Reed served five years in the Navy before starting college.<\/p>\n
Reed said the shorter courses also help veterans maintain full-time status while using benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a five-week class right now. And then once that ends, as soon as that ends, I\u2019ll pick up on one of the flex classes or a 12-week class, and that will carry me out throughout the semester,\u201d Reed said. \u201cSo that helps veterans like myself stay full time so that we get the full GI Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katen Amin, a marketing professor at Hillsborough College, teaches many Flexible Start courses. He said some subjects can fit into a shorter timeline, but students should expect the same amount of work in less time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, a marketing class like I teach, you could probably learn that in eight weeks or 12 weeks, just as much as 16,\u201d Amin said. \u201cSo it does increase the workload. I will tell you that you\u2019re taking 16 weeks, now you\u2019re doubling the work effort if you make it an eight-week course, because we\u2019re not going to take out work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amin said the condensed pace has not kept students from enrolling or succeeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen countless, countless students all the way from dual-enrollment students from high school, all the way to retirees in the 60s,\u201d Amin said.<\/p>\n
Reed said he has received support from professors as he prepares for the next step in his education.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the professors here are very passionate about their careers and about whatever it is they\u2019re teaching,\u201d Reed said. \u201cThey\u2019re helpful. I enjoy it overall, and I\u2019m excited to see what USF has.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 12-week Flexible Start courses begin on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Hillsborough College is offering over 1,100 Flexible Start classes this coming semester, with more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4996,9995,274,113,276,2200,146935,115,135,137,136,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-398221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-education","tag-app-latest-education-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-education","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-jt-lynch","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}