This past April, the (MFT) in the Falk College hosted its first in-person residency for master of arts online students.

The department welcomed 33 students from all over the country, and for many it was their first experience in Syracuse. The students attended workshops, learned therapeutic skills from MFT faculty and staff, and shadowed residential students to get a sense of the services offered at MFT’s at Peck Hall in Syracuse, near the Syracuse University campus.

The three-day visit culminated with a keynote presentation by Falk Family Endowed Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy , lunch, a campus tour and social time at the Inn Complete on South Campus.

Before they visited Syracuse, we asked two online students, Stacey Martha McDonald Lowe and Ali Asad Somjee, to introduce themselves and explain why they decided to pursue an online MFT degree. Here’s what they wrote:

Stacey Martha McDonald Lowe

In 1988, upon beginning my undergraduate studies at Howard University, I did not initially declare a major. I was still trying to figure out how to make meaning of my life’s work. At that time, I was not sure what “I wanted to be when I grew up,” but what I did know was that I wanted to help people and have a positive impact in the lives of children and adolescents.

My early years as a student at Howard University introduced and reinforced the notion that to whom much is given, much is required. As such, I feel as though it is my responsibility to use my gifts, talents, and knowledge gained in service.

I come to the MFT program at Syracuse University as a non-traditional student. I have worked for the federal government at various agencies in a variety of positions for 30 years. The positions that I found most fulfilling were the ones where I had opportunities to connect with people and help them in a way they found meaningful. I began to ask what should become the cornerstone of the next phase of my life as I seek to be a positive force in the world. After much consideration, I realized that many already rely on me for informal counseling and that the responsible thing to do would be to receive formal training.

The next step for me was to research MFT programs. I live in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Local options are very limited, so I expanded my search to include online programs. I am very happy to have the opportunity to study at Syracuse. I will admit that prior to beginning the online MFT program at Syracuse, I was a little skeptical (my own personal bias toward in-person classes), but I was excited to have an opportunity to receive the training that I needed despite the lack of opportunity available locally.

But I started thinking, “How will I connect with my colleagues and professors?” These concerns were quickly resolved. I have felt connected to, and related well with, my classmates and professors since day one. My learning experience has far exceeded any expectation that I had.

Ali Asad Somjee

I deeply value my relationships and connections with people; it is in authentic interactions with others that I find myself most engaged in the “flow state” described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. After I transitioned from a career in finance to my current career in the nonprofit industry, I focused completely on working with adolescent youth to mentor and help them develop their social-emotional skills.

These experiences helped me realize how central relational dynamics are for me as both subjective meaningful experiences and a mentally stimulating intellectual topic. These experiences and my intellectual interest in psychology led me to discover marriage and family therapy as a discipline and career path that I now choose to embark on.

My professional goal is to become a formally trained and licensed practicing therapist. Additionally, I intend to combine this professional goal with my personal goal of learning and growing, and integrating all my learned knowledge and experience to develop myself as a person and add value to my graduate program, discipline and patient/clients. Personally, I am very curious about people’s life experiences, backgrounds and values.

As someone working full-time, I value flexibility and the ability to study at my own pace. For this reason, I searched for quite a while to find an online MFT program from a highly reputed university. I realize that an online program forfeits the value of in-person discussions and connections, so I look forward to the practicums and on-campus residencies as avenues to connect directly with professors, mentors, colleagues and patient/clients.

Editor’s Note: Somjee was recently awarded a from the . The fellowship supports the development of new scholars who will advance systemic theory, research and clinical practice grounded in a commitment to social justice.

Visit this MFT to learn about other caring professionals in the online master’s program in Marriage and Family Therapy at Syracuse University.

Beginning with the Fall 2024 semester, all University Blackboard courses will be offered in Ultra Course View. To help instructors who use Blackboard prepare for the transition, the ITS Online Learning Services (OLS) team will host an  on Wednesday, Jan. 4., 2023.

Blackboard Ultra Course View is an entirely re-designed approach to Blackboard courses, both for instructors to create content and for students to participate in courses. This includes a clean, modern look and a single-page course structure that uses learning modules and folders to organize course content.

You can learn more about , including features, access and a timeline. OLS staff have worked to test and configure the courses, create support documentation and design training materials to provide a smooth experience for instructors. This includes an asynchronous Ultra Course View Orientation course and short, synchronous training sessions called .

Instructors can  for Ultra Course View sandboxes to explore the new course look, feel and function. Instructors also can  in Ultra and Original Course View.

OLS recognizes the time and energy involved for each instructor and will continue to provide updates, training and tips. OLS staff are excited to assist instructors as they take advantage of a modernized Blackboard and create first-class Ultra courses.

Jason Webb G ’18,  an instructional analyst with ITS Online Learning Services, adjunct professor in the Newhouse School and instructor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, recently received a “Create with VR” grant from Unity and Meta Immersive Learning. As part of the grant, Webb will receive 15 virtual reality (VR) headsets. The grant is awarded by three-dimensional (3D) content platform Unity and Meta, the parent company of virtual reality brand Oculus, as well as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other apps and services.

Webb plans to use the VR headsets to “help introduce students in the 3D animation and visual effects class to new ways to tell stories using 3D models along with trainings for faculty to help introduce VR to the classroom,” he says. “For my research, it will help dive into how educators can use VR to immerse students in the content.”

The grant comes at a time when extended reality is becoming more common in higher education, both in physical and virtual classrooms and in research and creative settings.

“Over the last few years, we have seen a huge swing in the use of XR (extended reality) in the classrooms, whether it be for medical, industrial, storytelling or STEM classes,” Webb says. “With increases in technology power and design, it is getting easier to access the technology for consumption and development.”

In addition to receiving the grant, Webb is now certified as a VR Educator in Unity. This semester, he will be a keynote panelist at the Inclusive Campus of the Future Conference and give a presentation on the topic of “Extended Reality in Research” at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference.

Webb also is an active participant in the Extended Reality (XR) group at Syracuse University.

“Students and faculty can join our XR at Syracuse group that meets virtually online twice a semester, and they can reach out to me (jmwebb02@syr.edu) to join the group,” says Webb. “We also have the  website that updates information on XR projects on campus.”

This summer, Syracuse University’s Summer College welcomed its largest cohort of high school students in its over 60-year history. More than 1,000 students from around the world enrolled in an on-campus or online pre-college course through the University. This was the first time in two years that pre-college students were on campus for the program.

“I am overjoyed that so many high school students chose to attend Summer College at Syracuse University,” says Chris Cofer, executive director of the Office of Pre-College Programs. “We made a concerted effort to maintain a robust and diversified portfolio of over 80 course offerings, and I think students responded to that.”

In the spring of 2020, Summer College had to quickly pivot in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Up until that point, Summer College had only been an in-person program. All high school students who attended pre-college at Syracuse University would spend two to six weeks experiencing college life on campus. They lived in residence halls, attended college-level classes, ate meals in a dining hall and went on field trips to regional landmarks.

As the number of COVID cases started to rise in early 2020, many institutions around the country canceled their summer pre-college programs. Syracuse University’s Office of Pre-College Programs decided to take a risk and move all of its courses to an online format. “My team was prepared to take on the challenge of creating a program that met students where they were—at home,” Cofer says. “We viewed it as an opportunity to provide a robust, online pre-college program that high school students could attend virtually in the comfort and safety of their homes.”

Students responded, and the program exceeded enrollment expectations. Summer College had 837 high school students enroll in their online summer program, an 18% increase from the prior year.

In 2021, Summer College decided to only offer online courses again due to the high level of COVID cases. While students couldn’t have the experience of living on campus for yet another summer, the program tried to emulate a campus experience. Students had ‘community connectors’ in place and they could take part in virtual events and activities to unwind and meet students in other online courses. Professors had virtual office hours for extra help and students could take advantage of other Syracuse University resources offered online like the writing center.

Although case numbers were down significantly in 2022, the decision to offer an in-person option wasn’t easy. “We had to make the decision in the fall of 2021,” says Cofer. “I chose to stay true to our general operating philosophy to meet students where they are. We anticipated that cases would be lower and that students would want to be in person again.”

They were right, and a record was broken. 1,060 high school students from 40 U.S. states and 18 countries attended Summer College this year.

By offering more than 80 courses both in-person and online, a greater population of students could attend pre-college. While most students attended the in-person program, more than 150 took their classes online. For some, it was because of the ongoing risk of COVID. For others, an online program fits better into their lives because of jobs or other responsibilities.

Historically, high school students attend Summer College for many reasons. They can test out a college major to find out if it’s something they want to pursue. It’s also a valuable differentiator on a college application. Many students are interested in attending Syracuse University, but they want to see what it’s like before applying. This year, those reasons were all still true—but living through a pandemic has caused students to have different perspectives, challenges and needs. Two weeks of living on a college campus was transformational for these students.

“A quote from a 2022 Summer College parent sums it up better than I can,” Cofer says. “They said, ‘I have noticed that my son holds himself differently now. He moves through the world with a bit more confidence. A bit more assured of himself. He’s comfortable going off and figuring something out more than he was before.’”

Applications for Summer College 2023 will open in December. Applications for Accelerated Semester Online courses, which are offered during the school year, are open now. .

Story by Amy Kruse