The University of Illinois Springfield ION Professional eLearning Program’s Overview of Online Instruction course has seen a large jump in enrollment, as more Illinois higher education professors and K-12 teachers are wanting to learn how to better teach online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Course enrollment jumped from 793 students in 2019 to 1,819 students so far in 2020. Just recently, 1,153 students completed the course during the April to July term.

The University of Illinois Springfield’s Office of Engaged Learning has been awarded a nearly $45,000 Illinois Cooperative Work Study Program grant to increase the number of paid internship opportunities available to students completing academic internships through the UIS Internships and Prior Learning Program.

University of Illinois Springfield students, faculty and staff living, working or taking classes on-campus are required to participate in free saliva-based COVID-19 testing once a week during Fall Semester 2020.

The saliva-based Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test was developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The test can detect the virus in people who are asymptomatic and/or individuals early in the course of disease.

Test results are expected within the same day and should not exceed 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays.

Innovate Springfield, a downtown Springfield innovation and business incubator, has become part of the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) under an agreement aimed at expanding economic growth, entrepreneurship opportunities and social progress in the capital city, Chancellor Susan Koch announced today.