Between summer 2025 and fall 2026, OSU’s Ecampus is adding 15 new undergraduate and graduate programs to its online degree offerings in a strategic move designed to increase enrollment and meet student needs.
The programs represent several in-demand fields such as electrical and computer engineering, healthcare administration, special education and clinical psychology.
The new additions were chosen to support the “30 by 30” goal of Prosperity Widely Shared, in which OSU hopes to nearly double online enrollment to 30,000 students by 2030.
Ecampus’ mission as part of a land-grant university is to partner with the colleges to help make OSU education available and accessible to learners throughout the state, said Lisa L. Templeton, vice provost of the Division of Educational Ventures. Over the years, that work has expanded to include students from across the U.S. and more than 50 countries worldwide.
“Ecampus has been partnering with OSU faculty and developing high-quality online programs for many years now,” Templeton said. “In order to meet the 30 by 30 target, we decided to dedicate our resources to developing degree programs that we feel would yield potentially high enrollment, versus building a lot of smaller programs.”
There are some exceptions for niche programs that may not drive huge enrollment numbers but are still important to the university, Templeton said.
In some cases, programs already existed on campus and Ecampus just needed to build the online versions; in others, Ecampus teamed with faculty to create brand-new programs at OSU.
As of 2024-25, Ecampus offered 114 degree and certificate programs with more than 1,800 credit courses, and has partnered with nearly 1,300 faculty from all OSU colleges and the Office of Graduate Education.
“We’re really trying to attract students who are adult learners, out there working, who often have started their degree at some point in the past and stopped,” said Shannon Riggs, associate vice provost of educational programs and learning innovation. “And they are place-bound — they have jobs, families, community responsibilities; they’re not able to pick up and move to a Corvallis dorm.”
In fall 2023, after Prosperity Widely Shared was announced, the Division of Educational Ventures conducted market research on the top 60 highest enrolled degree programs in the country, looking at both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. They analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Student Clearinghouse and the National Center for Education Statistics. With that data, Ecampus then coordinated with OSU’s colleges to determine which departments could build and offer those degrees.
“We want to make sure we’re focusing on programs that we think will help learners obtain the skills they need to be employable,” Templeton said.
Each online course at OSU takes two terms to design and develop. Ecampus instructional designers partner one-on-one with college faculty members to jointly build the online class structure.
Faculty members bring the subject matter expertise and classroom experience, while the instructional designers share their expertise in online course design, pedagogy, accessibility of content and other factors to ensure the course effectively engages online students in an asynchronous format. As part of the six-month process, faculty members also take a six-week workshop on developing an online course. And Ecampus has a full media development team to create custom videos, animations and other interactive web content for faculty as needed.
“Having that process and that level of support helps us stand up programs more quickly and to a higher level of quality than we would be able to do otherwise,” Riggs said.
Ecampus has been ranked in the top 10 for online bachelor’s programs by U.S. News and World Report for 11 years running.
In addition to new degrees, Ecampus is also offering more microcredentials, three-course programs students can complete to quickly upskill in their current careers or reskill to pivot to a new career.
“We’re trying to grow our enrollment for our strategic plan, but I never want it to be just about the numbers. This is really about serving place-bound learners,” Templeton said. “What gets us excited in our team is providing access, and helping students who may not otherwise be able to finish their degree.”
New and upcoming Ecampus programs
Undergraduate degrees:
- Innovation and entrepreneurship, launched summer 2025 (College of Business)
- Sports business, launching winter 2026 (College of Business)*
- Elementary education, launched summer 2025 (College of Education)
- Social work, launching fall 2026 (College of Education)*
- Chemical engineering, launching fall 2025 (College of Engineering)
- Civil engineering, launching fall 2025 (College of Engineering)
- Electrical and computer engineering, launching fall 2025 (College of Engineering)
- Healthcare administration, launching fall 2025 (College of Health)
- Communication studies, launching fall 2026 (College of Liberal Arts)
Graduate degrees:
- Business analytics and applied AI, launching winter 2026 (College of Business)
- Information systems, launching fall 2026 (College of Business)
- Supply chain and logistics management, launching fall 2025 (College of Business)
- Master of Arts in Teaching with an option in special education, launched summer 2025 (College of Education)
- Wood innovation for sustainability, launching fall 2025 (College of Forestry)
- Clinical psychology, launching summer 2026 (College of Liberal Arts)*
*The three starred programs will launch in the terms listed pending curricular approval; delays in approval could push those start terms further out.
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