World Campus

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State World Campus is increasing the number of courses it offers in a seven-week format, giving students more flexibility in how they build their semesters around work and family.

About 50 more seven-week courses will be offered in 2027, bringing the format to offerings in visual arts, nutrition, health policy, homeland security, community development and education technology. Faculty at 11 Penn State colleges and campuses are redesigning the courses in collaboration with Penn State World Campus.

World Campus already offers more than 100 courses in the seven-week format, in fields from earth sciences and art history to nursing and engineering management. Almost 30 are General Education courses that undergraduates in any major can use toward degree requirements. The expansion adds five more.

Seven-week courses run in either the first or second half of the fall and spring semesters. Students can take them on their own or alongside full-semester courses, depending on their schedules and what their programs offer.

The redesigned courses are being built to match the course work and learning objectives of their full-semester versions. World Campus provided faculty with guidelines for choosing which courses suit a faster pace and keeping the work equivalent, and its learning designers are partnering with faculty on the redesigns.

Full-semester versions remain available in many programs, and students still begin their degree programs in the existing World Campus start terms.

“Seven-week courses can help adult learners keep moving toward a degree and finish sooner, without putting work and family on hold,” said Karen Pollack, interim vice provost for Online Education at Penn State. “Students get more control over how they spread their course work across a semester. Expanding our offerings in this format is one of several ways we’re building a Penn State education around the lives our students actually lead.”

The redesigns range from converting much of a program to redesigning a single General Education course. They come from the faculty-led effort that produced the nine AI literacy projects World Campus announced in September.

Here are the courses and programs the colleges and campuses are converting to a seven-week format through World Campus.

• College of Agricultural Sciences: The professional graduate program in Community and Economic Development is moving toward a seven-week structure.
• College of Arts and Architecture, School of Visual Arts: Three General Education arts courses — ART 1: Introduction to Visual Arts; ART 10: Introduction to Visual Studies; and ART 20: Introduction to Drawing — have been redesigned for spring 2027. ART 20 is built as an online studio with small sections, quick feedback and lower-cost materials.
• Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications: Five courses in the Master of Professional Studies in Strategic Communications program.
• College of Education: Seven courses in the Master of Education in Learning, Design, and Technology program and the postbaccalaureate certificate in educational technology integration. Faculty envision rapid feedback cycles and limited group assignments and that the certificate could be completed in about six months.
• College of Health and Human Development: Eight courses in the bachelor’s in health policy and administration program. Because the curriculum is sequential, students will have more opportunities during the year to start the next course. The college is also redesigning NUTR 251: Introductory Principles of Nutrition, a General Education health and wellness course.
• College of Information Sciences and Technology: SRA 111: Introduction to Security and Risk Analysis, a General Education social and behavioral sciences course, launches in spring 2027.
• College of the Liberal Arts, School of Labor and Employment Relations: LHR 458Y: History of Work in America, is joining the school’s existing seven-week courses.
• Penn State Behrend: Six courses in the bachelor’s in functional data analytics program.
• Penn State Great Valley: SWENG 888 in the master’s in software engineering is joining the program's existing seven-week courses.
• Penn State Harrisburg, School of Public Affairs: Eight courses, including the capstone, of the master’s in homeland security’s base program. Traditional 15-week versions will remain available.
• Penn State University College: Five courses in the bachelor of science in business. Full-semester versions will continue.

Seven-week courses are well-established in numerous programs that Penn State’s colleges and campuses offer online through Penn State World Campus. These include graduate programs at Penn State Great Valley in finance, engineering management, software engineering and systems engineering; undergraduate and graduate programs in labor and human resources; business core courses; and RN to B.S.N. nursing courses.

The seven-week General Education course titles already offered online through World Campus span the curriculum, including:

• Arts: Introduction to Art Therapy; Arts in Communities; Global Introduction to Art History
• Humanities: Greek Civilization; Hebrew Bible: Old Testament; Stalinism and Nazism
• Natural sciences: Volcanoes; Planetary Geology; Navigating Weather Disasters; Horticultural Science; Materials; and Games People Play
• Social and behavioral sciences: Mass Media and Society; Introduction to Criminal Justice; Parks and Sustainability; Apocalyptic Geographies
• Quantification: Insights Into Math

Penn State World Campus has offered a Penn State education online for more than 25 years. Its portfolio of more than 200 degree and certificate programs spans business, technology, education, health care, the liberal arts and more.

The expansion is part of ongoing work at World Campus to give nontraditional learners such as working adults more ways to start, continue and finish a Penn State education.