Graduating in December?

If you are about to graduate, you should take a look at the TWU Graduation and Commencement Page. It has all the information you need to be prepared for graduation!

You can also find specific information about the Denton and Houston Commencement Ceremonies.

If you have additional questions about graduation and commencement, please contact the registrar's office at 940.898.3036

Congratulations to our Fall 2010 TWU Graduates!

~The Office of Lifelong Learning

Career Exploration Class: Find Your Career Direction

The Office of Career Services would like to announce the Spring 2011 semester offering of The Psychology of Career Exploration & Development, a 3-hour elective course offered by Career Services through the Psychology Department. The course assists students with exploring careers, selecting a major, developing career planning skills and includes an introduction to the job search process.

Offered: Tues/Thurs from 2:30 to 3:50PM
Prerequisite: 2nd Semester Freshman or beyond
Course Code: 63630

You must enter the code for this course in the ‘Express Registration’ section of the registration process. The course prefix is PSY, the course number is 4913, and the section is 01.
For questions or more information, please call Peter Varnau (Career Counselor and Course Instructor) at 940-898-2972.

How May We Serve You?

Students who take distance education courses have a wealth of student services available to them, with more added each semester. One goal of Texas Woman’s University in regards to serving its distance learners is to be able to offer equal service to them without requiring them to come to campus.

Academic Resources

Currently, distance learners have full access to the course catalog; they can register and pay online and meet with their advisor by phone, email or chat. If it is necessary to drop a course, a student can do that by contacting the department offering the course they want to drop, all without coming to campus.

When it comes to utilizing the library, the TWU Blagg-Huey Library is next to none in what it offers its distance learners. For starters, distance learners have their very own librarian and staff members available to help them get started with their research. Ms. Stephany Compton is the Distance Education librarian and is always eagerly helpful. Distance learners can also utilize any of the electronic resources that are available to them via the Internet: the TWU Library Catalog, databases, subject guides, articles and electronic books. Distance learners can receive a TexShare card that allows them to check out books at any participating library in the State of Texas. In addition, they can utilize interlibrary loan and take advantage of research tools that assist with citation and bibliographies. All of these rich tools can be accessed by students without making a trip to the library on campus.

Student Life Resources

At the hub of non-academic student services is the Office of Commuter Services. This office works with the different areas of Student Life to establish equal and accessible student services for distance learners. Students can contact this office at 940.898.2789 to voice ideas or ask questions about available student services. Their announcements can be found on the Facebook page, “TWU Off Campus Students” and through Twitter at “TWUOffCampus.”

Every distance learner should receive a TWU Student ID after the 12th class day from ID Services. Students can use their student ID to obtain student discounts wherever they are given and students must present their student ID card whenever they use the TexShare card.

The TWU Write Site offers assistance to distance learners through the Online Writing Lab or OWL. Students can submit their writing assignments to the OWL and receive feedback about their paper.

Distance learners can buy their text books online and have them shipped through the TWU Bookstore website. When it’s time to graduate, distance learners who want to participate in commencement can purchase graduation regalia online as well.

When graduation is drawing near that means it is also time for students to start thinking about a job. For this, they can enlist the help of TWU Career Services. This office has a whole website devoted to the services and resources they offer distance learners.

The TWU Counseling Center has many self-help resources available on their website including information about sexual harassment and testing. Due to legal issues, the Counseling Center is unable to communicate with any student via the Internet or email or other electronic means.

In addition to these academic and student life service areas, distance learners also have full access to the TWU Help Desk if technical issues arise with Blackboard, registration, Pioneer Portal, TWU email, Microsoft applications and other TWU-related tech issues. They can be contacted by phone, email and online chat.

If for any reason distance learners want to come to the TWU Denton campus, they can obtain a free, temporary parking pass from the DPS office. This free parking pass is available once per semester only to students who are enrolled in distance education courses.

For more information about these and other services available to distance learners at Texas Woman’s University, please visit the Getting Started Guide, or contact the Distance Education Unit of the Office of Lifelong Learning at 940.898.3409 or DE@twu.edu.

Epsilon Omega Epsilon

Epsilon Omega Epsilon (EOE) was established at Texas Woman’s University in 2009 to be the national honor society for students in higher education pursuing a degree through distance education.

The first group of qualified students was invited to join in the spring 2010 semester, and on May 3, 200 TWU students were inducted into EOE as its inaugural members. The first group of officers was elected shortly thereafter. This fall, over 140 new members will be inducted as new members, giving the TWU chapter over 300 members. EOE hopes to add more nationwide chapters beginning spring 2011.

For more information about Epsilon Omega Epsilon including its history, vision, the membership criteria and process as well as a list of current members and officers, please visit the EOE website, or contact one of the advisors.

The State of Distance Education at TWU

For the fourth consecutive semester, the number of students enrolled in Distance Education (DE) courses at Texas Women’s University has increased. This statement holds true both of students taking a mix of DE and face-to-face courses and those taking DE courses only.

For the fall 2010 semester a total of 7,439 students at TWU were enrolled in at least one DE course. Of those students 3,758 were taking only DE courses.

Distance education is defined as a course or program in which over 50 percent of the instruction is delivered via satellite, compressed video, Internet, or other electronic means. Under the umbrella of Distance Education, courses are further classified as either Fully DE or Hybrid DE. Fully DE courses are delivered 85 to 100 percent electronically, and Hybrid/Blended courses are delivered more than 50 but less than 85 percent electronically.

Here are some other quick facts about the state of distance education at TWU for the fall 2010 semester:

• Through distance education we offer 18 graduate degrees (some of which can be earned 100 percent online), nine undergraduate completion degrees and six certificates.
• 276 faculty members from each of TWU’s four colleges teach via DE.
• Students taking DE courses only account for 26 percent of the total TWU enrollment.
• TWU offered 719 distance learning course sections.
• The majority of the DE-only students live in the Metroplex followed by the Gulf Coast Region, followed by out-of-state students.
• The majority of our out-of-state, DE-only students live in Oklahoma, followed by Arkansas, Louisiana and California. We even have students from as far away as Alaska!
• The majority of our DE-only students are 22 to 30 years old, closely followed by 31 to 40-year-olds.

For more information about distance education at Texas Woman’s University, please review the fall 2010 Distance Education Snapshot that is available online at www.twu.edu/de or call the Distance Education Unit of the Office of Lifelong Learning at 940.898.3409.

National Distance Learning Week

November 8 – 12, 2010 is National Distance Learning Week (NDLW). NDLW is sponsored by the United States Distance Learning Association, and the purpose of this week is to raise awareness of the popularity and growth of distance learning around the country. Check out www.twu.edu/de/ndlw.asp for more information about how TWU is participating!

Education Career Day

The joint TWU/UNT Education Career Day will be next Thursday, November 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Hubbard Hall. Over 35 employers will be available to provide information regarding various types of full time employment opportunities. Visit www.twu.edu/career-services/career-days.asp for a list of the employers, as well as the majors they are seeking.

Remember to bring copies of you resume to distribute and business professional attire is required.