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Ball State U. students take advantage of online courses, flexibility(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MUNCIE, Ind., Apr 28, 2006 (Daily News, U-WIRE via COMTEX) --Once he finishes his tasks at work, Ball State University junior Nathan Neely typically spends at least four hours of his shift finishing up homework. He's not unlike other college students who struggle to fit class work into their busy schedules -- with one exception, though. Neely is thousands of miles away from Ball State's campus. The 23-year-old Army reserve sergeant is in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, with the Alpha 138th Signal Battalion, deployed to provide communication for the entire forward operating base there. He was to be released from duty Jan. 13, but military plans have kept him in place for the time being, he said in an e-mail from the base. To get some of his class requirements out of the way, Neely enrolled in the university's Fast Track program, which currently offers more than 20 classes online as 10-week courses. In Iraq, Neely uses a laptop to log on to a low-speed Internet connection. The English literature major and creative writing minor gets his books from a Web site, usually within about two weeks. Having taken History 150 and 151, Religious Studies 151 and Astronomy 100 all from Iraq, he's one of the students who would ordinarily be considered traditional, but he's taking advantage of Ball State's not-so-traditional online course offerings. Across the country, universities are broadening their educational offerings and maintaining market share with the increasingly popular method of distance education. Sixty-three percent of schools offering undergraduate face-to-face courses also offer undergraduate courses online. For graduate programs, that number rises to 65 percent. Experts say the revitalized form of independent learning is growing in popularity because of the flexibility and access of online classes. Distance education is not a new concept, but the way the courses are taught is evolving as fast as the concept is growing in popularity. Increased faculty and student access to high-speed Internet connections has allowed schools to use programs such as Blackboard and other software to teach classes from far off campus. CAMPUS POPULARITY The Sloan Consortium, a group that researches online education, reported that online student enrollment grew nationwide by 18.2 percent between 2004 and 2005. The Internet popularized distance education by keeping students and faculty in more frequent and accessible contact, Diane Watters, marketing manager for Ball State's School of Extended Education, said. In earlier forms of distance education, students and professors mailed assignments and lessons back and forth through postal and campus mail. Now, all materials are typically posted to the sites for online programs, said Staci Davis, the School of Extended Education's director for on-site and independent learning programs. This allows students to know what they are getting involved in from the very start of the program, as well as plan ahead for their courses. "Trends are moving toward flexibility in classes," Davis said. "Students and adult learners have more constraints with their personal and professional lives." With the hectic schedules so many college students have, distance courses allow education on demand -- even for students who aren't really at a distance. Davis said on-campus students take courses during the regular academic year to avoid scheduling conflicts or to meet degree and graduation requirements more quickly. And for those off campus, Fast Track courses can be a big help, which Neely discovered when he reached his base in Iraq. "I may not have been able to take many classes, but every one I took was a little less that I would have to make up in the future," he said. So far, he said he's missed three semesters for deployment and one for training -- he left school for Iraq before Spring Semester 2005. Neely said a few other students are taking Internet classes at his base from various other institutions. More universities are beginning to add general education classes, allowing students to complete core classes when they chose. The Sloan Consortium's 2005 report showed that, nationwide, most curriculum areas are covered by online courses. Business courses have the highest penetration, with 43 percent of colleges offering face-to-face and online courses. "Most things revolve around some sort of access," Jeff Seaman, survey director for Sloan-C, said. "I'm able to offer an elective for students that I wasn't able to offer before." Regardless of what type of course, students might be quick to think of distance education as an easy out. But success, Davis said, takes a self-motivated student who won't procrastinate. "Not everyone is conducive to learning online," she said. Tech-savvy undergraduates are not the only people flocking to online independent learning. Faculty members are coming forward and embracing the technology, too. "Typically, when distance education goes forward it is the entrepreneurial arm of campus," Davis said. "We put this forward and had an overwhelming response from deans, department chairs and faculty members." THE MARKET A bill passed in March by Congress, which lifted a federal aid requirement that colleges hold at least half their courses on campus, opens the door for online-only institutions to snatch students and their aid money. And in this increasingly customer-driven market, students are likely to head where their needs are best met with flexibility and accessibility. Although online degree programs, such as University of Phoenix Online, have existed for some time, traditional brick and mortar universities like Ball State are starting to fight for a piece of the online education market. Pam Wilson is the coordinator for distance learning at Western Kentucky University, which has seen a nearly 600 percent increase in online enrollment since Spring Semester 2001. She said the market consists of students looking for specific distance education courses and majors. "The big difference is that [online schools] are market driven," she said. "Where there is a need in a market, in an area, they go in and fill that need. Traditional institutions are not geared to a market system." The rush to provide more distance education programs is causing some universities to play marketing catch-up. "We want to gain back that market share," Davis said of Ball State's Fast Track program, which she helped develop. "We put heads together to try and meet market demands." Large public schools, however, lead the way with online learning, as they have the heaviest online enrollment, Seaman said. In fact, Sloan-C's third annual report on the state of online education in the United States found that online classes are entering higher education's mainstream. Seaman said public schools' progress is fueled by government mandates for large, public institutions to serve the greatest population. "We're behind the eight ball in comparison to other universities," Davis said of Ball State. FUTURE With the popularity of distance learning growing among on-campus students and more students of all ages buying into online courses, Wilson predicts a shift in the demographic profile of distance education students. "The definition of a traditional student will change," she said. "Even traditional students are non-traditional. They still have to work, they get married, they have children -- their status can change." Still, distance learning provides an opportunity for older students to continue learning, Wilson said. Davis said even with the on-campus popularity, Ball State's program will continue focusing on the off-campus market -- everyone from military personnel to dropouts. Seaman said he predicts the growth rate will slow to a steadier rate, but it could take five years before statistics are solid enough to judge. It's already possible for students to earn complete degrees online, but as programs progress, those degrees might become more common. What could change, Davis said, is the transferability of credits between institutions. This would allow students to attend multiple institutions over the Web or in-person to complete their degrees faster. "People might not need to go to school [to complete a degree]," she said. "It just depends on how the market rolls." But the idea of missing out on the college experience makes things even more uncertain for some students. "In theory you could do it online -- but do you really want to do that? That's what's up in the air," Davis said. |