Cornerstone College President Gerson Moreno-Riaño explains the college’s SOAR program, which gives bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in enterprise by way of a cellular app.
Individuals seeking to earn levels at their very own pace can now accomplish that through their cell phones after Cornerstone College tailor-made diploma choices in its enterprise program to cater to college students preferring a self-paced program that may be accomplished on a smartphone.
“We developed the nation’s first cellular platform to ship an accredited undergraduate diploma and a grasp’s diploma as effectively, all through your cell phone,” Cornerstone College President Gerson Moreno-Riaño instructed FOX Enterprise in an interview.
Moreno-Riaño stated that this system launched in August and has about 250 college students enrolled. College students in what’s referred to as the SOAR program can get hold of an affiliate’s or bachelor’s diploma in strategic enterprise administration, or a grasp’s diploma in organizational management.
“One of many stunning issues we have seen is that the persistence fee from month-to-month is 91%, so college students are sticking with this and finishing it,” he stated, including that some college students who transferred in with prior credit to finish a level would be the program’s first graduates this 12 months.
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The SOAR program permits college students to interact with studying supplies in small parts on their smartphones. (iStock)
Moreno-Riaño stated that Cornerstone’s worth level for its SOAR bachelor’s diploma is $24,000 from begin to end, whereas the grasp’s diploma is $12,000.
“Greater than half of our present college students enrolled in this system now are paying no tuition as a consequence of scholarships and grants.”
“We see this as a chance to deal with a niche in our nation now with regards to schooling, and albeit, we’re satisfied that the present American greater ed infrastructure can’t handle this problem. It was constructed for what I name conventional brick and mortar college students,” he stated.
“We thought, how can we take this ubiquitous piece of expertise that everyone has, that everybody spends quite a lot of time on? On common, in our nation, we’re speaking about effectively over 4 hours a day that adults are on their cellular gadgets.”
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Cornerstone College’s SOAR diploma program permits college students to earn levels on their cell phones outdoors a standard classroom. (iStock)
Moreno-Riaño stated Cornerstone examined the app for over a 12 months with about 120 college students, which knowledgeable the college’s means of revising and launching the SOAR app.
He stated that Cornerstone is deeply involved with the way it reaches out to non-traditional college students and disenchanted college students, a few of whom have not tried to pursue a level whereas others tried a standard school expertise and are not prepared to return.
Moreno-Riaño stated that when Cornerstone was mapping out this system, it understood that the standard curriculum of 120 credit score hours in a diploma program could not be mapped over to a cellular app, so the college sought to unpackage these programs into “bite-sized chunks of academic content material.”
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Cornerstone College’s SOAR program gives accredited bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in enterprise, Moreno-Riaño stated. (iStock)
“Within the app, there might be mini-lectures, podcasts, e-book evaluations, interviews, all with very carefully, fastidiously designed studying aims all through this system,” Moreno-Riaño stated, explaining that among the lectures could also be within the vary of 5 to 10 minutes.
“We’ve got micro assessments built-in which might be instantly graded and suggestions is given to the coed.”
A few of the program’s first graduates instructed Moreno-Riaño that they hearken to among the classes whereas commuting to work, whereas touring or doing family chores.
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“It permits them to, in essence, proceed the training expertise amidst a posh schedule as a result of we unbundle it, unpackage it, redevelop it and preserve the engagement standards in order that college students keep finding out and centered,” he stated.

