Dr. Ron Shook preparing for a class. The university is fully accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. The program is offered entirely online, which means that students can complete all requirements for the Master of Science degree in English without traveling to the USU campus in Logan. However, in our online seminars they do all this without necessarily meeting each other in person. Members of the class interact through the Internet, using a simple interface program called Syllabase, which was developed by technical staff and faculty in USU's English Department.
Synchronous discussion occurs in real time.
Students who are logged on at the same time use this feature to read and respond to each other's messages without a time lag. Most class discussion, however, is conducted asynchronously to accommodate students who live in different time zones and have different work schedules. In an asynchronous discussion, students do not need to be logged on at the same time to exchange messages. They may post messages to the class at any time of the day or night, at any location in the world where there is access to the Internet. Students can read and respond to each other's postings whenever it suits them.