(Duluth, Minn.) – We’re on a roll! Lake Superior
College’s Virtual Campus is offering a first-of-its-kind online course
that will allow students to earn college credit by training for and participating
in an inline skating marathon or half-marathon. The course will be offered
this summer in cooperation with the
NorthShore Inline® Skating Marathon, North America’s largest inline
skating marathon.
“We’re very excited about the opportunity to partner with a world-class event in this growing sport,” says Barry Dahl, LSC’s vice president of technology and the virtual campus. “Students will be able to earn college credit by participating in a premier inline skating race. It’s a challenging class that promises to be a lot of fun for the participants.”
The online course, Special Topics: Inline Skating Marathon (PE 2999), begins on July 11, 2005 and continues through September 23. It will include information on technique, safety, and training related to inline skating plus required participation in a skating marathon.
In addition to tuition and fees, a special fee of $60 will be charged to provide guaranteed entry to the NorthShore Inline Skating Marathon and a unique LSC running shirt. To maintain flexibility for distant learners, students do have the option of participating in a comparable event, but they must arrange for their own entry into any other race.
Eddy Matzger, one of the best-known inline skaters in the world, will teach the class. Matzger’s accomplishments include winning more than one hundred inline races, including various national championships. He was the first person to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro on skates; the first person to climb the Great Pyramid at Giza on skates and the only person to participate in the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain on skates! He also teaches popular workshops, held all over the world. “Having Eddy Matzger teach this course is like hiring Mark Spitz to teach a swimming class or Mia Hamm to teach a soccer class,” says Dahl.
The LSC Virtual Campus will also become a sponsor of the NorthShore Inline Marathon as a means of promoting the new offering. The new class is similar to two courses LSC developed to allow students to earn college credit for running Grandma’s Marathon and the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon. Those courses are currently running with 60 students enrolled.
The North Shore Inline Marathon is the largest inline skating marathon in North America, with over 3,600 participants from 13 countries and 42 states already scheduled to skate this year. Organizers expect over 5,000 participants in all. It is also the only World Cup inline skating event in the U. S. this year. The race is celebrating its tenth anniversary on Sat., Sept. 17, 2005. It follows the same course as the famed Grandma’s Marathon held each June along the coast of Lake Superior from Two Harbors to Duluth, Minnesota. More information is available at www.northshoreinline.com.
With more than 130 courses offered via the Internet and over 650 full time equivalent students, Lake Superior College's Virtual Campus is the leader in providing online for-credit college classes in Minnesota.
For more information, contact Christine Torma, (218) 733-2030, c.torma@lsc.mnscu.edu or check out the following website: http://www.lsc.mnscu.edu/online/.