One of the benefits often associated with participating in an online learning program is that you often get to meet students from different geographic regions who are working in varied capacities within your field of study.

For instance, RIT’s online learning master of science in health systems administration program enrolls working adult students from many counties across New York state outside of the Rochester area, as well as students living and working in Pennsylvania and as far away as Alaska. The result is that these colleagues/students, through their frequent online collaborations and discussions on numerous topics, wind up with a very broad view of the industry they work in.

A Mixture Worth Noting

"In a class of 20 people, there might be four or five nurses, a PA, a physician, an x-ray technologist, a medical technologist, some folks from the business office, and people from the local HMO who do financial analysis or systems administration," says Health Systems Administration Program Chair and Professor William Walence. "Students share what’s going in other markets and other geographic locations."

"The background of colleagues are certainly varied," says student Lorraine Maier, who is a quality management coordinator and administration liaison to the emergency department at a community hospital in Long Island, NY. "It is helpful and interesting. The most glaring thing overall is that despite differences in geographical location or area in the industry, we all have similar problems and experiences."

"My experiences with student and instructor interactions have been very helpful," says Laura Schorfheide, a lab manager at a hospital in Ketchikan, Alaska. "Having the opportunity to consider different perspectives on a given topic has oftentimes been quite insightful."

Contract Administrator for Tufts Health Plan’s Allied Health Department in Boston Massachusetts, Geralyn Glenn, says "each participant brings a different viewpoint and different materials to the table. You become familiar with where they are in the country and their knowledge base, whether it’s in a lab, school-based program, insurer, consultant group or hospital setting."

Work Experiences Cross Many Lines

Glenn administrates health and wellness, fitness and pediatric dental programs and previously worked for a blood bank in Delaware. "I have enjoyed the class discussions and the professors. The range of knowledge within this program is quite extensive. . ."

Schorfheide says her routine responsibilities include staffing and scheduling, budget preparation and monitoring, compliance with state and federal regulations and dealing with personnel issues. "I also participate on numerous committees," she adds, "including safety, infection control, organizational integrity and the corporation-wide laboratory compliance committee."

Maier says she is responsible for performance improvement activities and initiatives concerning obstetrics, gynecology, trauma, medicine and ambulatory surgery. Plus, "I have an administrative role for the Emergency Department. I am involved in the reorganization of the ED and its policies and procedures, processes and physician staffing."

Overall all three online students mentioned here bring a very wide range of valuable information to their classmates.

"The broad heterogeneity of the program is what makes it really attractive to people," claims Walence. "That’s one of the real beauties of a distance education program that you would not typically get in an evening (on-ground, traditional) program."

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