CEE Online program offers flexibility, edge for young professional

6/12/2015 Kristina Shidlauski

A student in the CEE Online program says the program's flexibility allowed her to earn her degree while maintaining her work schedule.

Written by Kristina Shidlauski

Yeh Center
Yeh Center
Jackie Wong with department head Benito Mariñas at a reception for 2015 CEE graduates.

Students from all over the world have the opportunity to take advantage of the educational opportunities afforded by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s CEE Online graduate degree program, even while actively pursuing their careers. One such student, Jackie Wong, recently completed her M.S. degree and celebrated Commencement in May, 2015, with other CEE at Illinois graduates.

Wong, who received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from UCLA, currently lives in San Francisco where she works for the California Department of Transportation as a transportation engineer. She said she decided to enroll in the CEE Online program because she wanted to continue pursuing her educational goals but felt it would be too difficult to attend classes in person while keeping her work schedule. The online program provided the flexibility she needed to work towards her M.S. degree while at the same time moving forward in her career, she said. The concurrent schedule also allowed for a symbiotic exchange of information.

“It’s been really cool to be an online student while working because I can actually apply the things I learned immediately or even bring things from the working environment right into the classroom,” said Wong.

Wong felt confident that her Construction Management (CM) concentration and the additional background coursework she took in the online program would complement her professional experience and give her an advantage for future career movement. The program's rail courses were an unexpected bonus, she said. Originally only intending to take the High-Speed Rail (HSR) CM course, she eventually decided to take all the HSR courses that were available so she could gain an edge on the HSR project underway in California.

“As far as I know, there are no California universities that have rail, or even HSR coursework available for students — and California is ground zero (in high-speed rail) right now,” said Wong. “I really enjoyed these classes; there was a good mix of instructors and the coursework was both interesting and challenging. The instructors did an amazing job to include the online students.”

Conrad J. Ruppert Jr., Senior Research Engineer at CEE’s Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC), teaches some of the classes in which online students participate. Ruppert said that he uses a mix of online software, videos, Q&As, team projects and other reference materials to integrate online students into his classes. The lecture portions of the class are still a challenge, he said, as online students can view lectures but cannot engage in the discussion that goes on as part of the class. Still, he thinks the online program is a great addition to CEE’s course offerings.

“Working with online students brings an added dimension to the classes I teach,” Ruppert said. “For the most part they are people who have some industry related work experience, which enables them to see more clearly the practical applications of what is being taught.”

Though unable to have real-time discussions during lectures, Wong’s distance from the Illinois campus did not prevent her from finding other ways to interact with fellow students and faculty. Microsoft Lync, Skype and FaceTime were utilized to connect with professors and classmates. Email and conference calls supplemented the contact. Wong also participated in RailTEC’s 2014 international outreach program, during which she was able to meet other students from her classes in person. The outreach program involved a group of undergraduate and graduate RailTEC students traveling to Paris for a week-long stay to learn about ongoing research in the rail industry both at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in France.

Wong said her experiences with the CEE Online program were tiring, since she was taking two classes at a time in addition to maintaining a heavy work schedule. In spite of that, she said the experience is one she would recommend, albeit at a slower pace.

“I definitely recommend the program to others but self-motivation and a good support system is key,” she said. “I took two classes at a time and was working 50-plus hours a week.  It really took its toll, but I was trying to fast-track myself.  Personally I think spreading it out over three years would have been ideal — one class at a time.”

“I really love the social interactions and connections you make that come with being in an educational setting so those are the things I tried to make happen on my end as best possible,” she added. “I was apprehensive about the whole online thing at the beginning, but it did turn out better than I imagined.  I am leaving with a small little network of peers I'd be comfortable contacting in the future and think they'd feel the same about me."


More information about the CEE Online graduate degree program can be found here.


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This story was published June 12, 2015.