A nationwide demand for accounting professionals. Five campuses with accounting faculty and courses. An existing online degree. Experience in developing multi-campus online programs. A desire to increase enrollments by attracting students to specialty degrees. All the terms added up nicely. The sum total? A collaborative online degree in accounting.
Origins
Several campuses offered undergraduate business administration degrees with a minor or concentration in accounting. In 2014, IU East created an online B.S. in Accounting (B.S.A.). However, before COVID, other campuses had neither the interest nor capacity at to build a full-scale online accounting degree.
COVID generated more interest in, and skill with, developing online courses. “After COVID, online was in more demand,” says Lee Zhong, faculty director for a cluster of online Chancellors degrees that include the B.S. in Accounting, the B.S. in Business Administration (B.S.B.A.), the M.S. in Management, and the M.S. in Strategic Finance. “Every campus had more online courses.”
This included accounting courses targeting a variety of accounting specialties. Now there was not only demand for the degree, but also the faculty and curriculum to build a broad-reaching collaborative program. “Post-COVID,” says Zhong, “there was a change in culture that resulted in a new collaboration mindset. The campuses realized that they could grow bigger and increase enrollments by pooling resources. Collaboration brought everyone together and made us ‘one IU.’”
Developing the program
A faculty committee representing IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Northwest, IU Southeast, and IU South Bend began meeting in fall 2021. Zhong, who was a faculty representative on the committee that created the Chancellors B.S.B.A., says that the campuses’ experience in developing the B.S.B.A. was key to making decisions that would allow Chancellors B.S.A. students to enjoy a robust curriculum, standardized pre-requisites and policies, and a common academic and support services experience regardless of course.
IU East accounting professor Shari Fowler, a faculty representative on the committee that created the B.S.A., agrees. “Faculty have built relations with other faculty. We ask, ‘How do we solve problems together?’”
Building the courses
Fowler notes that eLearning Design and Services has worked with numerous faculty members to help develop some of the accounting courses. “Lee initiated the course build process by bringing together faculty from each campus for input on each individual course. The groups agreed on common topics and learning outcomes to ensure consistent course delivery across campuses. The instructional designers have been highly innovative in their suggestions to faculty for bringing in-class exercises to the online environment. In some cases, AI has been leveraged to enhance student interaction and comprehension, bridging the gap between in-person and online learning.”
Importance of faculty director
Fowler notes the advantages of having Dr. Zhong as the faculty director for the four degrees in the Chancellors business cluster. “The cluster model is important because it provides consistency across all four degrees and, more importantly, one point of contact for regional campus administrators,” she says. "The B.S.B.A. and B.S.A. share several overlapping courses, and having Lee oversee scheduling helps ensure equity across campuses, improves efficiency in course offerings, and supports more accurate planning to facilitate student degree progression.”
Enrollment trade-offs lead to overall growth
Enrollments in the B.S.A. have grown steadily, from 32 students in spring 2023, to 254 students in spring 2025.
At first, says Zhong, the launch of the B.S.A. caused enrollments in the collaborative B.S.B.A. to dip slightly, from 703 students in fall 2023 to 692 students in spring 2024. “But overall, the business programs are growing. In spring 2025, enrollments in the collaborative B.S.B.A. and B.S.A. totaled 1,023 students. Offering a broad range of courses provides more options and therefore attracts more students. It’s good to be able to be able to offer specific fields.”
Looking ahead
Additional opportunities and challenges lie ahead, says Zhong. “There are other concentrations in the B.S.B.A. that could be developed, like AI, supply chain, and healthcare management. We need a good plan going forward to hire new faculty and to provide more support to the faculty.”
About the Chancellors B.S.A.
The Chancellors B.S. in Accounting teaches students how to perform accounting tasks; provide data-driven solutions; think analytically and critically; and practice sound ethics and logic in accounting and business situations. It is offered through IU East, IU Kokomo, IU Northwest, IU Southeast, and IU South Bend.