Flex Classes Help SUNY Canton Meet the Needs of Modern Students

Missing an in-class lecture won’t put a student behind in SUNY Canton’s Flex Classes.

The integration of the new course options allows students to physically attend, participate virtually or complete their work entirely online.

SUNY Canton Assistant Professor Ryan S. Hewer teaches a Flex Class from one of the college’s two video-enabled classrooms. Hewer is wearing a video camera tracking device and a headset microphone to record and broadcast his lecture while he is presenting.

“We are making our courses accessible to more students,” said Molly A. Mott, associate provost and dean of academic support services. “We began with one course about a year ago and have since expanded to eight different unique options taught by a handful of our forward-thinking faculty members.”

Lectures are live streamed to participants and are simultaneously recorded and posted to SUNY Canton OnLine, where students can access it at any time – or as many times – as they like. It allows online students the option of attending a class in person, while traditional on-campus or commuter students can decide whichever way they’d like to participate.

They are also ideal for working professionals who are looking to advance their degree who want to participate in a traditional college-style learning environment.

“Flex classes change the model of delivery from one in which a rigid time schedule is ‘pushed’ on a student to one in which the student ‘pulls’ the class when the student needs it,” said Professor Charles R. Fenner, who teaches two Management classes in the new format.

SUNY Canton has two video-enabled streaming classrooms on campus. Students engage with their faculty members and one another in real time during the streaming class section on large monitors.

Jade Kenyon, a SUNY Canton Funeral Services Administration Student, takes Flex Classes online from her apartment in Canton. She is pictured with her cat, Po.

The college also offers two courses in its online Agricultural Management program, several Homeland Security courses and a Construction Management as Flex Classes.

SUNY Canton’s Flex Classes are funded through a Performance Improvement Fund grant from SUNY. A portion of that funding is also used to increase engagement with the college’s substantial online student population by offering expanded college resources.

Pictured is SUNY Canton Associate Professor Umesh Kumar, who teaches Finance, presenting a Flex Class. Kumar is wearing a video camera tracking device and a headset microphone to record and broadcast his lecture as he is teaching it.

About SUNY Canton

SUNY Canton is Northern New York’s premier college for career-driven bachelor’s degrees, associate degrees and professional certificate programs. The college delivers quality hands-on programs in digital design, engineering technology, health, management and public service. Faculty members are noted for their professional real-world experience in addition to outstanding academic credentials. As SUNY’s leader in online education, SUNY Canton OnLine offers hundreds of flexible and convenient courses as well as 16 online degree programs. The college placed first in 14 categories in a SUNY-Wide Student Opinion Survey, most notably in career services, tutoring, library resources, and classroom facilities. The college’s 15 athletic teams compete at the NCAA Division III level as part of the North Atlantic Conference.