Welcome to our distance learning web site

Last year alone, there was a huge 70 percent increase in distance learning registration throughout the United States!

Something must be going on!

Our site is here to bring you the latest information and opportunities on "on-line" education. Today, like never before, you are able to learn from anywhere in the world due to the internet. The goal of this site is to familiarize you with the ins and outs of distance learning and help you to actualize your academic potential.

• This site defines distance learning and describes its effectiveness.
  • What is Distance Learning?
  • Is On-line Learning Effective?
    
• We illustrate the distance learning classroom experience and the history of distance education.
• We examine the roles and relationships of students and faculty in this new educational setting.
• We investigate the types of distance learning and university degrees available

Furthermore, our web site describes the technical requirements for electronic distance learning. We ask you introspective questions about your own student personality and study methods in order to evaluate if distance learning fits your lifestyle and personality. Our web site instructs you in how to find the distance program that best fits your educational goals. Finally, we offer pros and cons on the benefits of distance learning, and a list of resources and links other beneficial web sites.

All you need is the desire, a computer and Internet.

What is Distance Learning?

The Internet threw learning out of the classroom and into cyberspace, making education available anywhere, anytime and adaptable to each person's individual needs. Students in China are registering for computer degrees from American universities. Working parents in Minneapolis can squeeze in accounting courses from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) between their workday and family life. Overachieving high school students can include college calculus in their secondary-school curriculum. International travelers log in to virtual classrooms whenever and wherever they please. Distance learning currently reaches over two million people!

Distance learning enables students to take courses on their own schedule and at their own learning pace through the use of telecommunication technology.

Students do not have to be present at a specific time in front of a teacher and in a real classroom. Instead, they can learn in the comfort of their own home. All that is needed is a computer, modem and internet connection.

Students attend class on their own schedule. Lectures, coursework and discussions all take place at their convenience.

A student's location in relation to the teacher is no longer relevant-the student can be at home, at work, on campus, or in an internet cafe anywhere in the world.

There are no physical boundaries to on-line learning!

Is On-line Learning Effective?

Sounds great, but does it work?

Distance learning provides the same high-quality education as traditional educational institutions. Many on-line programs are actually run from conventional universities and professional training institutes. The teachers and professors are all highly trained and demand high standards. Its effectiveness is reaffirmed in the self-reliant style of educational discipline and its dependence on the clarity of the written word. Distance students are self-motivated, because they most often operate outside a formal class schedule

What is missing is the commute to and from the classroom.

A History of Distance Learning

Distance learning grew out of experimentation by universities with closed satellite television broadcasts into regional classrooms throughout the mid-west in the 1960s. Students used the postal systems to correspond with instructors and receive written lectures and exams. But it wasn't until the growth of telecommunications technologies and the internet, that distance learning began to prosper.

Since the mid-1990s, when on-line education was being hyped as 'the next great killer application,' educators and business people were glossy-eyed with the vision of masses of students paying for expensive courses developed by famous professors from well-known universities. They dreamed of a new kind of classroom with sexy trendy internet technology, such as streaming video, simulation games, and other gimmicks would make run of the mill instructors archaic. Many of those programs no longer exist. The students never arrived. The lack of the personal touch of the ordinary instructor on the other end of the keyboard was deemed the cause. The enormously successful University of Phoenix Online, took the opposite approach. They created small classes, sensible lessons and reliable technology. Today, this cozier distance learning business philosophy is where on-line education is, as proven by the sheer number of students and their tuition dollars.

Today, 70 percent of American universities have at least one course on-line, and it is expected to grow to 90 percent by the year 2005. The variety of schools publishing their intellectual products on the internet is stunning: from modest Mississippi Community Colleges, to exclusive Harvard Business School's M.B.A. program, to the numerous master's degree programs at the University of Illinois, which encompasses a course schedule of hundreds of courses to choose from. The variety of academic and professional disciplines is astonishing. Generally most distance learning curriculum is inclined towards business and technology, with at least 600 marketing courses available online. Students can select from the common academic programs ranging from art, to psychology, to mathematics, and to special education programs.

Throughout the history of distance education, critics questions whether students can actually learn well from a remote location. Detractors argue that on-line education sacrifices intellectual excellence for convenience. It fosters isolation among students and dehumanizes the learning process. The American Federation of Teachers believes that distance learning inhibits rather than enhances quality education.

Universities expect enrollment to triple in the next ten years. To add to the educational options, several corporations, like General Motors and Microsoft, are setting up their own on-line learning centers for their workers and users. Moreover, hosts of private companies have arrived to profit on this fairly new educational market, which is already a multibillion-dollar market worldwide. Companies such as, Click2learn, Quisic, NETg, and SmartForce were formed to sell detached corporate educational modules on business practices ranging from employee hiring to developing C# software. Many of these companies no longer exist as a result of their marketing approach.

A View of the On-Line Classroom

Peering into a distance classroom, you see a highly digital setting. The formal education is conducted while seated in front of the computer screen which is connected to the internet. Absent is the struggle to find the location of the classroom on a large unfamiliar campus and being on time for the instructor's entrance. Instead, students sit alone in the comfort of the environment of their choice, telecommuting concepts, assignments and jokes.

The first day of a class will begin by receiving a study package from the professor that includes a reading list, set of lectures to be downloaded chronologically at an individualized pace and assignment requirements. One also receives a list of fellow students, their e-mail addresses and a private classroom forum message board.

Electronic learning can be either synchronous or asynchronous.

Synchronous learning imitates the traditional pyramid classroom. Classes take place at a specified time, in real-time. Students are connected to each other and to the teachers through audio, satellite television and chat rooms. Questions and responses are immediate. Synchronous learning can take place anywhere, but not anytime and is dependant on available technology.

Asynchronous learning can take place at any time. Students receive a learning package to work on at their own pace. They communicate with teachers and class members through e-mail and message boards. This style of learning offers collaborative non-hierarchical experience that is boundless to time and place. Most on-line courses are conducted in this educational style.

Class size is limited similar to traditional education. Students receive grades, credits and certification according to the standards of the educational institution.

Many courses often have specified dates when they begin and end and include a schedule of coursework and assignment due dates. There are also courses that are self-paced, which are similar to independent study.

Most learning occurs in the communication between students and professors and among students themselves. Students are often graded on their on-line participation which is required five out of seven days a week. Students find these dialogues and academic debates demanding and quite challenging. Through these on-line chats, social relationships also grow. Social quantifiers, such as physical characteristics and race, don't exist here. The entire experience is liberating. Just as in conventional education, distance learning creates strong social and professional bonds between students and their instructors.