News Release
Students Pass Up the Pump and Log On Instead
Cost of driving to campus enhances appeal of distance learning
The following story originally appeared in the July 13th edition of The News Journal.
Written by RACHEL KIPP
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The News Journal
Kim Baker initially decided to enroll in an online bachelor's degree program because of the flexibility. She could schedule her criminal justice courses around her life, rather than the other way around.
When gas prices hit $4 a gallon earlier this year, Baker and other students found another reason to take college classes via computer. Although enrollment in online classes and degree programs has been on the rise for years, some college administrators in Delaware and nationally are seeing startling growth fueled by consumers' desire to cut the cost of commuting to campus.
"I live not even 10 minutes [from campus] but it does still make a difference," said Baker, 31, of Smyrna, who is pursuing a criminal justice degree at Wilmington University. "Students in my courses come from everywhere: some are from New Jersey and some come from down near the beach areas. I can see where it would definitely make a difference."
Online courses are typically taught by the same faculty members who teach the face-to-face classes. Students communicate with their professors and one another through e-mail and discussion boards. Weekly lessons often include the traditional written assignments, quizzes and tests, in addition to watching videos online, listening to podcasts or participating in interactive simulators.
Enrollment in Wilmington University's distance learning program has increased almost 1,900 percent from 50 students to nearly 1,000 since the program launched last year. Additional growth is expected this fall -- some of it attributed to the overall expansion of the program, but administrators say fuel prices and tough economic times are also a factor.
"Students talk about time, they talk about money and clearly, gas is expensive now," said Sallie Reissman, Wilmington University's director of distance learning. "If they take classes online, they also don't have to hire a baby sitter and they don't have to pay for parking."
Balancing school, work
The often hectic lives of students, particularly nontraditional ones, balancing school with family and full-time jobs, are a primary factor in the demand of online programs.
"Online learning has achieved a kind of status where people don't keep on wondering: 'Is this stuff any good? Is this for real?' " said Frank Mayadas, director of New York City-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's program in online education. "When fuel prices go up, people are saying this is a viable option."
At Villanova University, the engineering school has seen a 40 percent increase in online enrollment this summer -- even though summer enrollments typically stay flat.
"We've attributed it to the huge gas prices," said Sean O'Donnell, who runs the engineering school's distance-education program.
Many of the new online students at Villanova live within driving distance of the Philadelphia-area campus. But high gas prices are compelling them to reconsider preconceptions about online learning.
"This has been the catalyst to push people to change their thinking about their education," he said. "You can now learn anytime, anywhere, on your schedule. They're not degrading the quality of education because of gas prices."
Faculty want to save, too
At Wilmington University, faculty are expressing interest in teaching online classes in order to save a trip to one of the school's nine campuses, including three locations in New Jersey, Assistant Vice President Thomas B. Cupples said.
The school offers five complete undergraduate degree programs online and plans to launch three online master's degree programs this fall. Students and faculty are required to take online orientation before teaching or taking an online course.
Most of Delaware's colleges offer online courses; a smaller number offer complete degree programs that can be taken solely via computer. Students at some schools can also take hybrid courses that include an online component and face-to-face instruction.
Not-for-profit brick and mortar universities and for-profit schools began offering online classes en masse in the mid-1990s and enrollment has grown about 20 percent nationally for the past five years, Mayadas said.
Studying for graduate degree
Much of the overall enrollment growth was driven by availability and visibility, as institutions launched or expanded their programs, Mayadas said. Growth was expected to slow slightly as the market saturated, but demand driven by gas prices could cause a new surge in enrollment.
Wesley College offers online courses in its adult programs through membership in the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges and Universities. About 80 schools are members and students have access to classes taught by seven provider schools. Only five students registered when the program launched last fall; 20 signed up for classes in the spring semester, Dean of Adult Studies Paul Thornton said.
The College of Business at Delaware State University is offering its most comprehensive slate ever of online courses this summer, including undergraduate and graduate-level classes in finance, accounting and economics, said Michael Casson, an economics professor and associate dean of the business school.
Casson has had several discussions with his classes about how higher gas prices are affecting students' lives; the impact is greater in the summer, he said, because the shorter semester creates the need for more class meetings per week.
"Instead of having a Tuesday-Thursday class, the classes meet Monday through Thursday, which requires them to come to campus four days a week as opposed to two days," Casson said. "[Online classes] also give them the opportunity to secure outside employment ... without having to be concerned about getting provisions from their employer to come to class."
At the University of Delaware, enrollment in online courses has increased 12 to 15 percent each year for the last four years. The distance learning program at UD was launched in 1987 with videotaped classes sent to students in the mail and now includes about 220 online courses, two complete bachelor's degree programs and two complete graduate programs.
More than 9,000 students registered for UD's online courses during the 2007-08 school year. Most were nontraditional students; full-time students at the Newark campus must get an advisor's permission to take an online class as freshmen and sophomores and are allowed a limited number of computer-only courses as upperclassmen, said Jim Broomall, assistant provost for professional and continuing studies.
"We're obviously monitoring gas prices to see how that impacts us, because another part of what our division does is we offer a whole host of courses in the evening on the Newark campus and in Wilmington," Broomall said.
Delaware Technical & Community College increased the number of online courses offered by about 7 percent from last year to this year; enrollment increased by almost 9 percent, spokeswoman Lisa Hastings-Sheppard said.
"We can't say that it's gas prices or not," Hastings-Sheppard said. "I think people are maybe still hoping that this is just all going to disappear and we're going to be back down to $3 a gallon. If this continues for much longer, people might start making decisions for that reason."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story. Contact Rachel Kipp at 324-2386 or rkipp@delawareonline.com.