JANESVILLE - Enrollment is up at Blackhawk Technical College for the fall 2017 semester, according to Jon Tysse, director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at BTC. Tysse reported the head count of unduplicated credit and pre-college students increased 3 percent compared to the start of the 2016-17 school year and full-time equivalent credits have increased 6 percent.
One year ago, Tracy Pierner started his tenure as BTC's new president and immediately asked faculty to begin working on creating more flexibility in how coursework was delivered and how classes were scheduled.
Two programs that made changes and are seeing results are welding and automotive technician, according to a news release. Welding, which adopted a scheduling system that allows students to enroll at almost any time during the semester, showed a 16 percent FTE increase after two weeks into the semester. The automotive technician program embraced a flex-lab system, where student attendance times are flexible and the lab is open all day, resulting in an 86 percent increase in FTEs.
The agribusiness, human resources, emergency medical technician, criminal justice, medical assistant, laboratory technician assistant, physical therapy assistant, diagnostic medical sonography, pharmacy technician and nursing programs also experienced enrollment gains this year.
In addition to expanding BTC's flexibility, the college also increased its enrollment of recent high school graduates by 50 percent compared to 2016-17.
Moving forward, Pierner expects BTC to further grow high school relationships so that dual and transcript credit options are more widely available at every school in both Rock and Green counties.
Along with a ramped-up high school recruitment plan and curricular flexibility, three new delivery styles have been implemented this year, including:
FlexLab: MyEdChoice - Student lab attendance times are flexible and course content can be delivered either in the classroom, using video conferencing or online.
MyEdChoice - Students can choose from three ways to attend each week/day either in the classroom, using video conferencing or online.
FlexLab Hybrid - Student attendance times are flexible but must be done at the specified campus during open lab hours with the non-lab course content delivered online.
Pierner noted more changes to the college are still in the works. Seven new degree programs and five new apprenticeships were added to the 2017-18 BTC catalog and more additions are coming soon, including a part-time nursing program scheduled to start in the spring.
One year ago, Tracy Pierner started his tenure as BTC's new president and immediately asked faculty to begin working on creating more flexibility in how coursework was delivered and how classes were scheduled.
Two programs that made changes and are seeing results are welding and automotive technician, according to a news release. Welding, which adopted a scheduling system that allows students to enroll at almost any time during the semester, showed a 16 percent FTE increase after two weeks into the semester. The automotive technician program embraced a flex-lab system, where student attendance times are flexible and the lab is open all day, resulting in an 86 percent increase in FTEs.
The agribusiness, human resources, emergency medical technician, criminal justice, medical assistant, laboratory technician assistant, physical therapy assistant, diagnostic medical sonography, pharmacy technician and nursing programs also experienced enrollment gains this year.
In addition to expanding BTC's flexibility, the college also increased its enrollment of recent high school graduates by 50 percent compared to 2016-17.
Moving forward, Pierner expects BTC to further grow high school relationships so that dual and transcript credit options are more widely available at every school in both Rock and Green counties.
Along with a ramped-up high school recruitment plan and curricular flexibility, three new delivery styles have been implemented this year, including:
FlexLab: MyEdChoice - Student lab attendance times are flexible and course content can be delivered either in the classroom, using video conferencing or online.
MyEdChoice - Students can choose from three ways to attend each week/day either in the classroom, using video conferencing or online.
FlexLab Hybrid - Student attendance times are flexible but must be done at the specified campus during open lab hours with the non-lab course content delivered online.
Pierner noted more changes to the college are still in the works. Seven new degree programs and five new apprenticeships were added to the 2017-18 BTC catalog and more additions are coming soon, including a part-time nursing program scheduled to start in the spring.