ABSTRACT
While face-to-face university offerings at or near community colleges are a positive move for students, online education is creating new educational opportunities for the 21st century learner. This chapter discusses both traditional transfer and online transfer processes and examines the problems, practices, and promise of virtual pathways to the baccalaureate. Transfer practices often target the traditional, face-to-face learners, leaving nontraditional and online students without many of the tools necessary for successful transfer to the baccalaureate institution. The institutional barriers discussed previously might be contributing factors to transfer shock, which itself might be a significant barrier in 2 + 2 transfer models. Successful partnerships remove barriers and provide opportunities for 2 + 2 completion, helping to achieve the Completion Challenge. Transfer partnerships must be centered on completion at both the community college and at the baccalaureate institution. Programmatic articulations should include associate's degree requirements as a prerequisite so that students transfer with that important credential.
