Why Ball State

We want to empower our students with quality educational choices, and we know that a degree, whether online or on campus, is a huge commitment of time, money, and effort.

Ball State Online offers all the advantages of a Ball State degree – highly trained faculty, quality courses, and more – but it’s delivered on your schedule and at an affordable price. Our award-winning programs offer our students both quality and value.

Meet Our Students and Faculty

Learn from their experience! Current students and alumni follow their unique journeys, but they all have one thing in common: Ball State Online offered them opportunities to pursue their passions and further their careers.

Same Faculty

Online, main campus, or blended — the only difference is the delivery. Although Ball State Online learning brings the classroom to you, it comes with the same faculty who teach in our main campus programs.

facultyYou may have heard that some universities use graduate students to teach many classes. That’s not the Ball State way. We give you the advantage of learning from faculty who are leaders in their disciplines and nationally recognized for their work.

Since online classes are taught by the same professors who teach on our main campus in Muncie, Indiana, you can expect instruction from scholars who are committed to both research and teaching. They are master teachers with lots of experience derived from the real world.

Because of Ball State’s commitment to innovative educational delivery, our faculty have been pioneers in the online classroom. At Ball State, professors receive the resources and support to create engaging online classes and programs that earn national recognition.

Quality Matters

Quality Matters – or what we refer to as QM – is part of our “secret sauce” in assuring that our online courses promote learning engagement. Ball State uses the rigorous, research-supported standards of the Quality Matters program to provide you with skills and tools you need to be a successful learner.

Ball State is recognized by the QM Academic Advisory Council for its implementation plan. And we are the first university in the nation to earn QM’s Learner Support Program Certification, which “recognizes programs that provide all the critical student and academic services needed for learner success and use learner feedback to continuously improve those services.”

Personal Approach

Don’t be surprised about the ways your professor personalizes the online classroom for you and your classmates. Ball State instructors are passionate about teaching and mentoring online students.

Typically, your professor will respond to your messages within 24-48 hours. While much may be done through email, you may also have the opportunity to talk on the phone, Skype, or participate in larger discussion groups with the professor and your peers. You will appreciate their robust, hands-on style.

If you show genuine interest from the beginning of class, your professor will have more opportunity to mentor you as you share questions and your curiosities about the subject matter.

Trained Faculty Benefit You

Exciting classrooms make for exciting classroom experiences for you. Ball State faculty make their course work engaging, relevant, and memorable with the help of instructional designers. These technology specialists are your team behind the faculty team that you will have. Instructional designers are collaborators who work with faculty members to help them strategize and develop best-practice methods — based on research in producing desired learning outcomes – for delivering course content to you.

To energize their classrooms, faculty take certificate courses on sound practices for preparing to teach online, building course community, and other skills to help with their online teaching presence. Ball State faculty, who teach online, often tell us that the training they get to teach online also enhances their on-site methods of teaching.

A degree from one of Ball State’s Online programs is the same degree received by students who study on the main campus.

Commencement

Whether it’s earned online, on campus, or a blend of both, it’s still a Ball State degree with its legacy of entrepreneurial learning, community engagement, and technology and innovation.

You'll graduate with a respected degree from a major university.

See Our Online Programs

Same Content with an Updated Delivery

Online courses are the same challenging courses that are taught by the same faculty on our main campus. Instead of face-to-face lectures, you will communicate or learn through email, discussion boards, videos, file sharing, wikis, blogs, web page posting, and other channels. All these tools add to the flexibility that online study offers. You will be learning and completing assignments at times most convenient to you.

A Century of Quality

Established in 1918 to meet Indiana’s need for more and better teachers, Ball State today is classified as a research university of high research activity (RU/H) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. All told, we have about 190 undergraduate majors and more than 145 graduate programs. We have more than 100 online undergraduate and graduate degrees, certificates, and licenses.

Today, Ball State’s entrepreneurial spirit continues to shine through numerous expansions and additions of degree offerings, technological resources, immersive learning opportunities, state-of-the-art facilities, and forward-thinking faculty who are always preparing for the next trends. These investments are preparing bright students to take advantage of current and emerging job opportunities, meet society’s most pressing needs, and serve the communities in which they will live and work.

Interactive Courses

The lonely glow of a laptop in the wee hours is not an accurate representation of online education at Ball State. In fact, we are just the opposite: ours is a vibrant community of collaborative, highly engaged students and proficient faculty.

You’ll communicate with your professor and your classmates on a weekly basis for assignments, readings, discussions, and other activities. Group projects are common, thanks to communications technology, and give you the opportunity to network with classmates who become part of your essential network of professional colleagues.

A Great Education in Both Quality and Value

As you consider starting or finishing a degree program, we understand the commitment of money, time, and effort you will be expending on this next milestone in your career path.

We also think you have come to the right place if you are seeking that crucial combination of quality and value. Our costs are competitive. Plus, we are an academically rigorous university with an entrepreneurial approach to learning. You will come away ready for your next life and career challenges.

Student Satisfaction Survey

Each year, we survey our students and ask for feedback about their online course experiences. Read for yourself what our students are saying about their experiences with Ball State Online.

View survey results (PDF)

While it is true that you will be earning the same degree online as you do on our main campus, we also understand that online delivery requires faculty who understand its unique benefits and potential.

That is where Ball State’s dedication to entrepreneurial learning starts to kick in. Our professors dive right into new technologies and approaches to learning that will benefit you.

To make sure we are hitting our marks, we use analytics and student feedback to measure the effectiveness of our courses and student services. We use this data as part of our continuous cycle of improvement for students.

Other universities that claim to be best buys in online education often have tuition rates significantly higher than what we do at Ball State. We encourage you to compare our tuition and fees with others.

And then, after you look at costs, consider the value you are getting for your total investment of time, effort, and money:

  • faculty with strong credentials who have been trained in online learning methods and who will be personally guiding you
  • a university recognized for its prowess and innovation in online learning
  • a flexible learning environment that allows you to study at times and places convenient to you
  • practical experiences that you can apply immediately in your current job – giving you an instant edge and payoff
  • a wide array of student services geared toward online, working adults

Are you carrying credits from another college or university – even if they were earned several years ago?

More than 90 percent of our online bachelor’s degree seekers transfer some or all of their credits from a previous institution. Learn more about transferring undergraduate credits.

Many of our graduate programs will allow you to transfer up to 9 credits from another accredited institution. If you wish to investigate whether the graduate credit you have already earned will transfer, speak with your program’s academic advisor. Every graduate program is different and may or may not accept it.