Workers and students of all ages turning to online degrees
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Imagine earning a college degree - listening to lectures, taking exams and trading ideas with professors and classmates - without ever stepping into a classroom. As many as 20 percent of college students have traded in campus classes for computer connections. |
A fledgling concept a decade ago, online education has become a hefty chunk of America’s higher education system.
More than two-thirds of all colleges and universities are now offering classes over the Internet. In the fall of 2006, about 3.5 million students were taking at least one college course online, more than twice the number in 2002, according to a report by the Sloan Consortium, an online-education advocacy group.
As defined by the Sloan report, online courses are classes in which at least 80 percent of the content is delivered online with no face-to-face meetings. They use computer software through which students can access lectures, assignments and other course materials, communicate with teachers and other students, and take tests.
Online courses make it possible for students to do coursework on their own time, whenever and wherever they can connect to a computer. Students who might want to meet their instructor or other students face to face, even while taking online classes, can select a school close to home.
Admissions and registration requirements for online programs are similar to those for traditional on-campus study. In many cases, students can enroll in individual courses online without being admitted to a school’s degree program.
The field “has now matured,” said Jeff Seaman, the Sloan Consortium’s chief information officer and survey director. “(Online learning) is no longer being proven. Now it’s just one of the tools a college or university has.”
Online generation
The typical online student is a working adult who can’t fit traditional classroom sessions into his or her schedule. But the number of younger students taking online courses is growing, partly because they are becoming accustomed to online resources in elementary and middle schools. “As more and more K-through-12 schools are now being taught in the online mode, students are going to be expecting that their courses are not going to be taught in the traditional brick-and-mortar, sit-in-the-classroom, listen-to-a-lecture mode,” said Larry Dugan, coordinator of online learning at Finger Lakes Community College, which has offered online courses for six years.
Tony Fator, 54, of Henrietta, a press technician for Heidelberg USA, is about to complete an online degree through Rochester Institute of Technology.
Fator, who once spent as many as 150 nights a year on the road, needed a degree to move into management and stop traveling so much. Now he’s negotiating with Heidelberg for a new position.
It was impossible for him to work full time, continue the traveling and attend a traditional on-campus program.
Fator was able to complete his coursework on his own schedule, sometimes late at night in hotel rooms across the country. Even lectures were available online; he could play them over and over to make sure he didn’t miss anything.
“The online (study) gives me the ability to make use of every bit of time I have,” he said.
Employers on board
More employers are warming up to online education, said Mindy Hershberger, research manager for Eduventures, an education consulting company in Boston.
About 62 percent of the 500 employers surveyed by Eduventures consider online learning as equal to, or better than, face-to-face instruction, she said.
“The people who have actually had the courses, in general, have no more problem getting employed or having to defend their degree than the person who has taken the face-to-face program,” said Seaman.
Bausch and Lomb Inc., for example, encourages online learning by employees, both for degree programs and internal training, said Mike McDougall, director of corporate communications.
B&L employee Terry VanEpps recently completed a bachelor’s degree in business management and economics through Empire State College, the distance learning unit of the State University of New York system.
The 38-year-old Gates man had been working on a temporary basis in human resources for B&L since 2003, yet without a four-year degree he didn’t expect to be hired as a permanent employee. But after 15 months as a contract worker, and about a year into the online degree program, VanEpps was hired.
“It didn’t matter that I had the experience, I really needed a degree if I wanted to make a career out of it. I ran into that roadblock enough times where I said I’m going to take this matter into my own hands and go for it,” VanEpps said.
VanEpps isn’t making more money with the bachelor’s degree, but he’s confident that it will open more doors in the future and increase his long-term income significantly.
Applications from online students require extra work by human resource staffers to verify education credentials, McDougall said.
“It does allow us to approach people with particular talents who may not have been able to attend a traditional institution for some reason. We think it’s a great untapped pool, but we need to make sure that degree is valid,” he said.
For-profit schools such as the widely advertised University of Phoenix are a growing piece of the field — accounting for about a quarter of the online education market, estimated at 350,000 to 1.2 million students.
Nevertheless, most online courses are offered by large accredited public schools where there is no distinction between a degree earned online or on-campus.
Bennett J. Loudon
Staff writer From: http://www.democratandchronicle.com
