Western Michigan U offering a free online master's degree

Online master's degree at Western Michigan University boosted by free tuition offer | MLive.com


Western Michigan University's new online master's degree program in adapted physical education is growing rapidly, now that a federal grant is covering tuition and textbooks fo students, WMU officials say.

Enrollment in the master's degree program, which was announced in January and trains physical education teachers how to work with children who have physical or mental disabilities, has significantly increased with the help of a $1.18 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, according to a WMU news release.

The grant pays for tuition and textbooks.

Twenty-seven students have been accepted in the program, according to the news release. Another 11 have been recruited to begin the program in fall 2012.

The hybrid online master's degree program was created in fall 2009. It has been federally funded since the spring 2011 semester.

In addition to tuition and books, the grant pays for an on-campus adapted physical education lab staffed by two graduate assistants.

Believed to be the first online program of its kind, it prepares physical education teachers to provide special education students in the least restrictive, most appropriate and most inclusive environment, the news release said. The lessons are designed for a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities.

The initiative also addresses the need for distance-learning programs for teachers.

As more children are moved into less restrictive learning environments, the demand for teachers trained in adaptive physical education is growing rapidly, says Jiabei Zhang, the program director. It is estimated some 10 to 12 percent of public school children require adapted physical education.

"There is a significant shortage of adapted physical education teachers in the public schools," Zhang said in the WMU news release. "That is a major problem public schools have right now."

Zhang says many schools opt to put students with disabilities in the same classes as other students, making specially trained physical education teachers a necessity. Program graduates also could end up teaching in a class specifically for children with disabilities.

For more information on the program, go to Special (Adapted) Physical Education | Health, Physical Education, and Recreation | Western Michigan University or call Dr. Jiabei Zhang, professor of health, physical education and recreation, at (269) 387-2949.