By NORMAN ANAWAT
BYU offers a variety of courses students from different parts of the world can take through Independent Study.
What started as an idea to bless people's lives through education has evolved to be the program Independent Study is today, said Duane Hiatt, director of editorial and media productions in the division of continuing education.
The Independent Study program at BYU is the largest in the United States in college enrollments and the second largest in high school enrollments, Dwight Laws, director of Independent Study, said.
This year alone, Independent Study expects to have around 32,000 enrollments. Of these enrollments, 14,000 are college students and 18,000 are high school students, Laws said.
The actual number of students is around 25,000 because they can take more than one course at the same time, Laws said.
According to a handout, Independent Study has a total of 827 foreign students taking courses in their own countries. Some of these countries are Kuwait, Russia, Jordan, Kenya, Iceland, Singapore, China and Bolivia.
Independent Study offers 300 college courses and 150 high school courses, Laws said.
These courses are as rigorous as any other class taken on BYU campus. They are written by the same professors that teach these classes on campus, Laws said.
'Students taking Independent Study have to be self-motivated. If they are not committed, it does not work,' Hiatt said.
The exams indicate that Independent Study students do as well as those enrolled in normal classes on BYU campus, Laws said.
Students can communicate with their professors through writing, facsimile, E-mail, World Wide Web or phone, Laws said.
The Independent Study program also has a computer bank with feedback statements that are tied to specific questions. If a student misses a question, the feedback is given to the student.
This feedback is designed and personalized by the professors themselves, Laws said.
It is impossible for the professors to grade everyone personally, However, the faculty prepares all the answers and the grading that are in the computer themselves, Laws said.
BYU students can also take Independent Study courses, Laws said. They are encouraged to take their classes on campus. If they can't, they have other options. Up to 36 credit hours can be applied toward graduation.
The completion average is roughly 60 percent, but this happens because many times those who take Independent Study courses are not typical students.
They have multiple distractions that sometimes prevent them from finishing their courses such as job changes or a death in the family, Laws said.
'It is a different profile of students from those BYU has on campus,' he said.
The cost per credit hour for college courses is $78.00 and for high school courses it is $71.00, Laws said.