Some callings announce themselves quietly. Jill Cohen’s arrived after a near-fatal accident that left her convinced her life was meant for something greater. She found it in middle school classrooms, first as a substitute, then in one of her own. But between her and the degree she needed for alternative licensure stood a full-time job, a family, and no time to spare.
“Going back to school as someone with a full-time job and a family is almost impossible, but I feel like I can do it all with this program,” Cohen said. “What we are learning is pointed, and I am applying it immediately in my classroom.”
The program is Fast Forward, and students like Cohen are the reason it exists. For more than 40 years, IWU has led in distance education by serving students traditional models leave behind. In August 2025, with approval from the Higher Learning Commission, IWU launched its first 90-credit-hour bachelor’s degrees in education, followed by a Bachelor of Applied AI Analytics in April 2026 and five more in August 2026 in high-demand fields including AI marketing, applied business, human services leadership, intelligence and criminal analysis, and justice leadership and public safety. The portfolio now includes seven 90-credit-hour degrees with 12 program and specialization options.
Fast Forward
Source: IWU-National and Global, August 2026
The design is deliberate. The 30 credits removed from a traditional 120-credit-hour degree were largely electives, the exploratory courses that give a four-year residential experience its length. What remains is purpose-built rather than simply shortened: coursework focused on each discipline, strengthened by stackable certificates, internships, and applied learning, and still developing the leadership, ethics, and communication skills employers expect. For a working parent like Cohen, breadth was never the barrier; time and cost were. Students who want four years of exploration can still choose a traditional four-year program. Fast Forward exists for those who cannot, and it asks them to give up neither academic rigor nor the shaping of conviction and character that IWU will not compromise.
For Cohen, that shaping is not waiting for graduation day. What IWU builds in her one week reaches her students the next; the steadiness and care that linger with a middle schooler long after the lesson is forgotten.
“This program has set me up for success. Without a Fast Forward degree, I would not be able to pursue what I am called to do.”
And her calling meets a need far larger than her own. “Rural communities are facing a teacher shortage, and this program is helping us eliminate that,” Cohen said.
A woman who nearly lost her life is now spending it on educating children. An education built around her reality is equipping her for the work God set before her, its influence already moving through a community that needs her.
