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Schedule & Online Classroom

SCHEDULE

PROGRAM TIMELINE

You set your own pace and determine your own timeline in the VT-MIT program by choosing the number of courses you take each semester. That allows you to find the right balance between professional, personal, and academic demands, even when they change throughout the year.

We recommend that you start with one course per semester until you decide you are comfortable taking more. You can expect to spend at least 10 hours each week on study and prep work for each course.

Taking two classes a semester is typical and considered part-time, and would allow you to finish the degree program in 2 1/2 years. Full-time students can finish in as few as 18 months, depending on the semester of entry and rotation of course offerings. Graduate certificate students can complete a certificate program in a year or more.

Students are required to finish the program within five years of their first course.

ASYNCHRONOUS CLASSES

The VT-MIT program is fully asynchronous. This means that you are not required to join an online class at a specific time of day, but it should not be confused for “self-paced.” Students will have assignments and deliverables each week, and faculty pay close attention to your online participation.

While the program is asynchronous, many of our faculty choose to host live sessions to enhance your academic experience. Attendance to live sessions is optional and all sessions are recorded for viewing at a later time.

ONLINE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE

CANVAS

Canvas is the online learning software that Virginia Tech uses. Each of your classes will have a virtual classroom site within Canvas and this is where you will go to find your syllabus, faculty lectures, classroom discussions, group projects, evaluative assignments and exams, and more.

While each faculty member runs their course differently depending on the method they feel best meets the need of the course content, Canvas provides a centralized location and familiar structure for each course to help you better navigate your graduate education.

FACULTY LECTURES

Asynchronous lectures by VT-MIT faculty are available whenever you are. Watch them as often as you choose. Extensive notes and transcripts, posted on the course Canvas site, accompany and enhance each lecture. Course lectures typically contain the following components:

  • Narrated PowerPoint presentations use a mixture of speech and visuals to allow the instructor to explain, slide by slide, details that cannot be clearly illustrated by text or pictures alone.
  • Online demos and tutorials showcase techniques and software usually taught in a classroom computer lab.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

How students are evaluated is at the discretion of the faculty, and evaluation and assessment methods are defined at the beginning of each semester in each course syllabus. However, VT-MIT students can expect to be graded on:

  • Regular homework assignments and practical application
  • Projects
  • Quizzes
  • Midterm and final exams

Assignments and projects are all submitted and presented in electronic form. 

A thesis or comprehensive exam/project is not required for the VT-MIT program.