{"id":73437,"date":"2024-11-18T10:33:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=73437"},"modified":"2024-11-18T10:33:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:33:15","slug":"beacon-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/beacon-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU Online reaches major milestone with latest graduating class\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just four years into a global partnership with Beacon Education, NAU Online is celebrating more than 1,000 graduates from the program as of Fall 2024. The virtual commencement ceremony for the graduates, who primarily reside in China, takes places Nov. 19.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The partnership between NAU Online and <\/span>Beacon<\/span><\/a> began in November 2020 and offers three online, competency-based degrees offered fully in Mandarin: master of computer information technology, master of science in computer science and master of organizational leadership.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe students enjoy the one-on-one interactions they have with their faculty, and they really enjoy being able to work at their own pace and progress more quickly,\u201d said <\/span>Corrine McCawley<\/span><\/b>, assistant vice provost for NAU Online. \u201cThe students are working professionals, and they really like that their professional experiences are such an asset in the program.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the NAU Online\/Beacon program, students enroll in a six-month subscription and they can complete up to seven classes during that subscription period. That allows students to speed up the time it takes to finish or slow down depending on their needs and time available. The programs also are competency-based, letting students apply their work experience to their coursework.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what drew <\/span>Xiaobing Xu<\/span><\/b>, a computer science student, and <\/span>Chaoxing Liu<\/span><\/b>, a project management student, to the Beacon PL program. Xu enrolled because he wanted the flexibility of online study while working full time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe program allows me to continue my education at an affordable price,\u201d he said. \u201cIt also has given me a strong educational background in computer science and provided advanced knowledge in areas like parallel programming and AI.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before enrolling in Beacon, Liu realized that she liked her project management job but needed more study to fully realize that work. The online program was her answer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThrough systematic learning and practice, I am able to better grasp the cutting-edge knowledge and techniques in the field of project management, further preparing me for my career,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m applying what I\u2019ve learned to better explore the field of project management, apply the learned theories and methods in practical work and lay a solid foundation for future development.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Online education is playing an increasingly pivotal role in preparing students to participate in the global economy, and NAU offers numerous programs designed to meet the needs of people already in the workforce along with other post-traditional learners, said <\/span>Carmin Chan<\/span><\/b>, vice provost of NAU Online. Since 1999, more than 25,000 alumni have achieved their educational goals through NAU\u2019s online programs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNAU has a proud history as a pioneering leader in online and digital education for more than 25 years,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are helping to make an NAU education a possibility for learners who would not have been able to access our campuses in a traditional classroom setting, and we\u2019re finding that students throughout the world are hungry for these opportunities.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just four years into a global partnership with Beacon Education, NAU Online is celebrating more than 1,000 graduates from the program as of Fall 2024. The virtual commencement ceremony for the graduates, who primarily reside in China, takes places Nov. 19.\u00a0 The partnership between NAU Online and Beacon began in November 2020 and offers three…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":73438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}