By Paul Glader

Columbia University’s vaunted Graduate School of Journalism in New York City is considering offering online courses or degree programs.

A letter that went out to some alumni on Monday said:

The School is thinking about how to incorporate the best practices of web-enhanced learning for both on-site students and those who could potentially enroll from a distance.  In tandem, we are also exploring the potential to expand degree and non-degree offerings to take advantage of the talents of our expanded faculty and to respond to student demand in new areas.  But we’re proceeding carefully in this vein.  This Spring, four faculty members at the School are piloting online courses in a blended format to current degree students and in the Continuing Education program.  We hope to learn what works and doesn’t work online, so that we can build a high-quality program that maintains the standards and uniqueness of the School’s academic legacy.

The school invited alumni to take a survey “to help inform us further about your interest in and concerns about the possibility of new degree and non-degree programs offered with online components.”

One question in the survey included:

As opposed to a full master’s degree program, if Columbia were to offer a graduate certificate in journalism, communications, media studies or a closely related field of study, how interested do you think aspiring journalism, media or communications professionals might be in taking a fully online and highly interactive format non-credit courses or certificate programs from Columbia?

The school is regarded by many as the top graduate journalism program in the country (though alumni and faculty of Northwestern in Chicago, U-Cal Berkeley in California, U-Missouri, would take issue with that). We see that the University of Missouri already offers an online graduate program in journalism. Columbia J-School started around 1912 with backing from media tycoon Joseph Pulitzer. Appropriately, it houses august institutions such as the Columbia Journalism Review and the Pulitzer Prizes and other important awards. Columbia J-School graduates are very well-represented among the ranks of top authors and journalists in the US. All this being said, the fact that Columbia J-School is considering the MOOC - Massive Online Only Courses - idea or online certificate or degrees is a big sign to the burgeoning online education industry. Up till now, Columbia J-School offered some webinars for alumni but has largely remained an in-person, brick and mortar program.

What do readers think? Should Columbia offer online journalism classes and degree programs?

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(Full Disclosure: I attended Columbia J-School as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in 2007-2008, taking classes at the J-School and Columbia Business School and receiving an M.S. from Columbia J-School.)