With a family at home and her own law practice, Bowling Green resident Jennifer Brinkley decided to get her master’s degree in criminology online. “It is the best way to get this degree,” Brinkley said. After graduating from Western as a broadcasting major, Brinkley went to the University of Kentucky for law school and has operated her own law office for the last 2 and 1/2 years. BRIAN POWERS/HERALD

After Jennifer Brinkley completed law school at the University of Kentucky, she felt like something was missing.

Brinkley, who graduated from Western in 2001 with a degree in broadcast journalism, now works full time in Bowling Green as an attorney with her own practice, and she’ll start a new job later this month as a prosecutor for the Warren County Attorney’s Office.

She decided to pursue a master’s degree in criminology, a new graduate program that is offered completely online at Western.

Brinkley said it would be impossible for someone like her to be a traditional student.

“Obviously, I can’t go to class,” she said. “The online criminology program was a perfect choice because I can access it 24 hours a day.”

Brinkley isn’t alone.

When the first online courses were offered in the spring of 1998, only three were available, said Cindy Troutman, distance learning coordinator, in an e-mail. In the 2008-2009 school year, there were 1,068 online courses offered.

The biggest growth in online programs has been within graduate programs, Troutman said.

The master’s in criminology degree, new this fall, is offered through the sociology department with support from the Division of Extended Learning and Outreach.

Assistant sociology professor Jerry Daday said there’s a big learning curve in transitioning from the classroom to an online setting.

Daday is the graduate adviser for the criminology program and teaches several classes online. He said he sometimes misses the face-to-face interaction of the classroom environment.

It’s a common misconception that online classes mean less work for the instructor, Daday said.

“I haven’t seen it yet,” he said.

Online degree programs only work if the whole degree can be completed over the Internet — not just a class or two, he said.

“From day one, we marketed it to the university and to the community at large as an all-online program,” Daday said.

Non-traditional students who work full time are generally more mature and self-directed than typical students, said Jim Berger, associate professor in education administration, leadership and research.

Berger is the program director for the master’s degree in adult education.

“I teach adults how to teach adults,” he said.

Even though the degree is offered completely online, Berger said he tries to make the classes as hands-on as possible.

He said he tries to avoid a lot of notes and lectures, focusing instead on field work.

“For me, it’s about the experience,” he said.

Brinkley, who is taking two online classes right now, said she hopes to complete her degree in the next year and a half.

She said her family has been supportive of her decision to go back to school, even though it cuts into the time they spend together.

Online programs are ideal for people with families, Brinkley said.

“You can’t tell your 5-year-old, ‘I’ve got to go to class, you’re going to have to make it on your own tonight,’” she said.