During the fall 2007 term, over 3.9 million students took at least one online course, according to a study based on the responses of more than 2,500 colleges and universities that was compiled by the Babson Survey Research Group, the College Board and the Sloan Consortium.
Online enrollments have grown more rapidly than traditional on-site higher education enrollments.
"The desire for 100 percent online courses has grown dramatically in the past five years," said Andy Duckworth, the director of eLearning at Tacoma Community College. "We currently have 4,500 students who are utilizing eLearning courses, which make up about 52 to 53 percent of our student body."
Tacoma Community College offers a full online degree program in health information management, full online courses, hybrid courses - part online, part face-to-face - and Web-enhanced courses, which are taken on site and are supplemented with online lessons.
Duckworth attributes the growth in demand for online learning to several factors.
First, about 65 percent of the students who are using eLearning are female, and a majority of them work, he said.
"eLearning works for women who have jobs and children," Duckworth said. "eLearning allows schedule flexibility, so people can take the classes when and where they can."
However, the downside is that eLearning is more time-consuming than traditional courses.
Duckworth offered the following tips for deciding whether or not eLearning is for you.
"I ask people if they are self-motivated," said Duckworth, who has worked in the TCC eLearning department for the past decade. "If they have a tendency to procrastinate, then eLearning is probably not right for them. To be successful at eLearning you need to be focused and structured to get the work done."
You also must have enough time. "The average person needs to spend about twelve to fifteen hours a week per class," he said.
Duckworth dispelled some popular misconceptions about eLearning.
Since the start of eLearning, people have argued that earning an online degree is not as good as a traditional degree. But this is becoming a problem of the past, Duckworth said.
"There are organizations that will always be viewed as diploma mills," he said. "But today there are accredited, respected institutions that are offering degrees online. And when people take online courses they see that the expectation of the student is the same whether they take a course online or at home."
Another issue with online learning is lack of supervision during tests. Some people think eLearning opens the door to cheating. Duckworth disagreed. It is up to the instructor to challenge a student's knowledge with the tests that they create, he said.
"The instructors are supposed to create tests that you can't Google answers to," he said. "They also put time limits on the test, so that students don't have time to go back and forth."
To prevent cheating, TCC and several other colleges have established test proctors to administer tests.
Duckworth used students stationed in Afghanistan as an example. "There are a growing number of soldiers who are working on their degrees online from Afghanistan," he said. "Their commanders are acting as their test proctors."
Overseas eLearning has increased in popularity because it allows soldiers to continue working toward their degrees.
"Many of the students are deployed for a year, and the eLearning program allows them to keep working towards their education goals while they are overseas," he said.
Below is a list of some online degree programs to check out.
Tacoma Community College - www.tacomacc.edu
Bellevue College - http://bellevuecollege.edu/programs/degrees/#online
DeVry University, WA - www.devry.edu/online-options/online-programs.jsp
Washington State University - http://online.wsu.edu/current_students/ar_degrees_certs. aspx
To determine if an online degree program is right for you, check out http://gradwise.org/Is_an_Online_or_Distance_Learning_Program_Right_for_You.shtml.
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