Distance Education refers to learning that takes place outside the traditional classroom setting. Surry Community College offers various types of Distance Education courses:

• Internet Courses - An Internet course is accessed via the Internet from home, office, or campus. The courses include instructor notes, textbooks, hotlinks, remote access to student services as well as library services. Surry Community College will provide a free web based email account for communication with your instructor.

• Hybrid Courses - Hybrid courses combine traditional classroom instruction with the interactivity of an Internet course. Like Internet courses, Hybrid courses are accessed via the Internet from home, office, or campus. The courses include face-to-face instruction, course websites, textbooks, hotlinks, online and in-class discussions, collaboration and problem-solving. Surry Community College will provide a free web based email account for communication with your instructor. All students taking a hybrid course must come to campus on the first day of class. Class location and time can be found on your schedule.  

• NC Information Highway - This is an interactive video conferencing course which enables students to come together from multiple locations with instructors for face-to-face instruction, discussion, collaboration, and problem-solving. The video-conferencing classroom at SCC and the Yadkin Center are equipped with two-way audio and video equipment that permit all students to participate fully in the class, regardless of location. All necessary technologies are available in the classroom.

The purpose of the Distance Education program at Surry Community College is to support the college’s mission to provide high quality, reasonably priced educational and job training programs which meet the needs of the adults in its service area.  Several options are now available for students to obtain degrees completely online.

Through the Internet, Distance Education courses provide access to thousands of information sources around the world, including libraries and news media. These sources can be accessed from any computer anywhere in the world that is connected to the Internet. Students are also not restricted to a particular time of day to seek information from classmates and teacher.

Each SCC Distance Education course is offered in the Moodle learning management system. Moodle places students in an Internet classroom that enables them to communicate with their instructor and classmates via their computer. Instead of sitting in a traditional bricks and mortar classroom at 10 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, students can participate in their Internet classroom from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. on Tuesday if they choose. Students enrolled in CIS 110, Introduction to Computers, for example, will participate in several hours of discussions about computer concepts they have seen, just as they would in a traditional on-campus class. The difference is that instead of discussing the same computer concept at 10 a.m., some students will post their comments to an online discussion group at 10 a.m. Monday, but others will respond at 3 a.m. Tuesday. By the end of the week, however, all students will have participated in the discussion group.

Take the Distance Education Pretest

Hours Available Online
Monday-Thursday: 8:00-4:00
Friday: 8:00-2:00