Bismarck Tribune - North Dakota News - Distance learning programs growing

Distance learning programs growing

Jun 19, 2007 - 04:07:30 CDT

Institutions of higher education sometimes - wrongly - are thought to be hotbeds of ultramodernist, academic vogue-of-the-moment thought and attitude. A college or university actually can be fairly hidebound and conscious of tradition.

One of the verities has been that students go to college. Go to - as in go to a place.

Increasingly, a reality of the 21st century is that while large numbers of students still present themselves on campus, colleges also go out to students.

Distance learning, as it's called, makes a lot of sense in some circumstances.

Electronic communication technology can do away with the walls of many higher ed classrooms. It may be only the academics glorying in their geezer status who insist that learning cannot take place without the odor of chalk dust in the air.

Mayville State University has been awarded a U.S. Department of Education grant to increase its enrollment through distance learning. It's a nice sum of money, $2 million spread out over five years, to upgrade an already successful program. Its distance education enrollment has increased 79 percent since 2004, with plans to better that. The school, having had about 270 students participating in cyberspace learning in the spring, wants to be educating 650 four years from now by way of the Internet and other tools.

It's not an ultramodern idea. Interactive audio-visual education has been going on for years in places where distance was the enemy of educating people.

It's a sea change for academic geezers to make the shift to thinking of, much less referring to learners as consumers rather than as having the status of student. But people seeking higher education now have an array of choices that gives them consumer power. One effect being seen by facilitators of accelerated and distance learning is that most of the learners participating in the programs are decidedly serious about their education.

Distance learning isn't perfect. Sometimes it suffers because of the lack of the magic spark of learning happening among a group of people togther in a classroom.

The University of Mary has made long strides into accelerated and distance education, attracting serious, capable learners to its undergraduate and graduate school level programs. Distance learning is not confined to its School of Accelerated and Distance Education and there are participants in its program who do the traditional thing, presenting themselves in the classroom in Bismarck and the numerous satellite locations. But distance education is an important component. September should see more than 850, perhaps as many as 950 participants in classes presented using various modes of technology.

Bismarck State College has been actively engaged in the new mode of learning for some years and already knows it will be engaged in distance learning in a big way in its energy industry training programs. The developing national reputation for leadership in the energy training field is expected to involve learners from all over.

Higher education in the 21st century should become more accessible to more people. Many institutions are trying hard to make it happen.

News > Opinion

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Comments

Online Courses wrote on Jun 19, 2007 2:09 PM:

" I had experienced Online college classes when I completed my degree for Business Administration. I thought Online classes were great and fulfilled my obligations towards completion of the courses required for graduation. On a side note, I had to chuckle, when I found out that Minnesota State University had a Physical Education course - Online. You can't say my "mouse" finger didn't get a great workout! "Pump Me Up" "

Works to a point: wrote on Jun 19, 2007 1:06 PM:

" I think distance learning can work to a point, but there are certain things that just can't be learned effectively online. Distance learning degrees in CPA, computer programming, and other black and white areas is fine, but there are areas of learning that need dialogue and physical presence to get the whole affect, such as medical and mental health, hairdressing and cosmotoogy, and many other areas where learning is based on being able to recognize a variety of problems or non-standard issues. Books that don't balance are standard issues, patients with physical or mental problems are not standard, and learning to work with the non-standard requires more than a text book and computer screen. Distance learning is great in it's place, but not everything works for everything! technology is great, but not everything in our lives can be reduced to a computer program. "

Reply to "A friend of a friend of a cop" wrote on Jun 19, 2007 11:52 AM:

" Online learning has filled a great need for a large number of rural people. Of course, not all programs lend themselves to this type of delivery. Don't make sarcastic remarks about something you apparently know little about.....why don't you try an online course to educate yourself? :) "

A friend of a friend of a cop wrote on Jun 19, 2007 11:13 AM:

" I'm waiting for an online medical degree. I've always wanted to be a doctor, but don't have a whole lot of free time and don't want to move to Grand Forks. "

onliner wrote on Jun 19, 2007 9:40 AM:

" I take classes online through a ND University. I live in small-town SW rural ND. I have a family and have to have a full-time job to help support that family. One day I would like to have my four-year degree and the only way possible is through onlie classes. I did go to NDSCS straight out of high school and did not know what I wanted, and was not a serious student. Now after a few years I know that I need more education to get a better paying, more fulfilling career. I understand what Pete is saying about not coming to the college town and not spending money. I think that most studnets who do distance ed are older student such as myself who would never have the chance to move to a college town, and as for the normal-age college kids who take online classes they are already in that college town, but choose to take one class online to get a few extra credits out of the way, or because they need that one class that is at the same time as another class. You should not "knock" online classes until you know online classes. "

collegeprofessor wrote on Jun 19, 2007 9:32 AM:

" in reply to "piston pete", your reply couldn't be farther from the truth. If economically speaking, the only way a dollar gets spent in the community is to "buy one pizza, or pay....rent to a landlord in Mayville", then you may be correct. But you can not forget that the online student often pays more tuition and fees, which the tuition and fees stay at the college. That money is dispersed to the different programs and ultimately to employee salaries, which do buy pizza's and pay rent. A dollar into the community is a dollar into the community, and it doesn't matter who spends it. "

piston pete wrote on Jun 19, 2007 6:08 AM:

" Distance learning is all well and good, but for main street in the college town, it doesn't do a thing. A "consumer" living in Indiana will not buy one pizza, or pay a penny of rent to a landlord in Mayville if he/she is on-line. "

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