news-record.com

More people than ever are enrolling in distance education courses to take advantage of flexible scheduling and, if they’re skipping the on-campus experience, lower education costs.  

Online offerings from public and private institutions have become commonplace in recent years as schools have responded to the demand for not only classes, but degree programs as well.

The University of North Carolina system’s program for online degrees is an example of one that has blossomed. Since introducing online education in 1998, the UNC system has expanded its offerings to more than 180 degree and certificate programs through its universities. Two Greensboro schools in the system, UNCG and N.C. A&T, offer online degrees.

According to James Sadler, with UNC’s general administration, in the 2007-08 academic year 43,749 students took an online distance education course. That’s up from 7,048 in 2001-02, when the university system began keeping data on enrollments by method of delivery.

Private schools also emphasize online options. At ECPI College of Technology, for example, students who attend the online campus can complete their entire programs online, according to Greensboro campus president Tammie M. Land. All the school’s students receive instruction through a mix of in-class, online and hybrid methods.

ECPI offers bachelor’s degree programs in criminal justice and network security, as well as associate degrees and/or diploma programs in business administration, practical nursing, web development, electronics engineering, medical assistant, medical administration and network security, according to the Web site.

The convenience of online classes is making education more accessible and online programs more popular.

“Online enrollment is outpacing traditional classroom enrollment,” says Michelle Soler, senior director of the Division of Continual Learning at UNCG.

Since the Greensboro school five years ago introduced the Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies, enrollment has increased nearly tenfold, from 60 students in fall 2004 to 595 this past spring, according to BLS program manager Jay Parr.

The school now offers bachelor’s, master’s and certification programs online. Soler said students are demanding an online Ph.D. program. There are no plans for an online doctoral degree at this time, but the university is offering two new online bachelor’s degrees, a Bachelor of Science in business administration and a Bachelor of Science in public health studies, beginning this fall.

N.C. A&T started online degrees in fall 1999 and offers nine bachelor’s and master’s in various agriculture, business, education and technology subjects. The Center for Distance Learning also has several education licensure programs and a Ph.D. in technology management through a consortium program with Indiana
State University.

The school’s most popular options are the education and licensure programs and information technology, which is relatively new, but requests are increasing, according to Gwendolyn Godard, associate director of the Center for Distance Learning.

As of Aug. 5, “there are 377 distance students (totally away from campus) and the total number of students enrolled in distance learning sections, including on-campus students, is 2,897,” Godard stated by e-mail. “So far, these numbers reflect decreases from fall semester 2008 (drops of 537 and 2,979, respectively), but registration is still going on. The current economic situation is a major contributing factor.”

Flexibility is a big draw for many online students, who are often over 30, employed full-time and juggling family commitments.

Kathi Lester, 51, recently earned a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies from UNCG. A business consultant and owner of KLarity, Lester needed the flexibility of online education because of job and family circumstances. Not knowing where she might be living in the coming years, Lester said she enrolled in the program because “I could live anywhere in the country and not move from school to school.”

Remote locations and flexible coursework completion deadlines also make online education ideal for members of the military serving active duty overseas.

While tuition costs for online and traditional classes are comparable, online students do not pay on-campus activity or parking fees, nor do they have to spring for the cost of a tank of gas to commute back and forth to campus.

UNCG calls its online degrees “degree completion programs,” meaning students must have 60 hours of general education credits to gain admission to the online programs. However, these credits can be earned online or at a community college. Even textbooks can be ordered online through the campus bookstore. Students need never set foot on campus to earn a degree.

The style of study is another departure.

Online classes give soft-spoken students the chance to be heard as equally as their more verbose peers. In a traditional classroom, said Soler, “If you’re shy or a wallflower, you may not be heard.” The online environment gives all students the chance to voice their opinions through discussion threads. It also gives students the chance to craft and articulate their responses.

“Students like that they can step back and think about their answers,” she said.

The increased participation often results in higher GPAs for online students compared to their traditional peers, Soler said. Failure and withdrawal rates for traditional and online students are similar.

The anonymous online environment that encourages wallflowers to speak up may also tempt some to drop their inhibitions in a negative fashion. But for would-be trouble-starters, UNCG has devoted an entire page to “Netiquette,” the online protocol of self-conduct.

As for Netiquette violations, according to Parr, “(we see) just the usual problems between instructors and students that are also seen in traditional face-to-face classes.”

The delivery method for online programs sets them apart.

“We don’t just take a face-to-face class and throw it online,” Soler said. “We format it for the medium. We rethink the content and make it interactive.”

For example, instead of reading a chapter on anarchism for a political ideologies class, online students visit a virtual newsstand and read anarchist publications. Many online classes are built on gaming theory, which states the more invested a student becomes in a subject, the more he or she will learn it.  

“Real-life situations are applied to the content,” said Chris Dunst, assistant director of online learning at UNCG’s Division of Continual Learning. “Students are learning, ‘What will I do with this in the outside world?’”