Online Learning: From Associates to Graduate Degrees

What if you are interested in learning about forensics or want to take a creative writing class for credit toward a bachelor’s degree? These and other courses one wouldn’t ordinarily think could be taught via the Internet are the new online courses. You can find a specialized course online for almost anything--even knitting!

A. Frank Mayadas, Ph.D., Program Director of the Sloan Foundation, observes that asynchronous learning will drive online learning to provide new online courses on a breadth and scale hardly imaginable. He sees specialized courses online growing and notes that it’s already happening. Online learners now have a spectacular range of possibilities, from full-fledged online degrees to classes in doll-making.

Online Learning: New Frontiers

When distance learning was first developing, it was primarily geared toward working adults in their late twenties to mid-thirties. They wanted to enhance their career development or get the degree they hadn’t gotten because of jobs and families. Online colleges and other institutions that offered online learning catered to their interests, with professional courses and degrees in business and health. Now, as the technology used to deliver online learning becomes more advanced and online learning is more accepted, the subject matter of courses is becoming more diverse. For instance, younger students who want to get a liberal arts bachelor’s degree online need more options. “Online learning is still very much in the career area,” says Brian Mueller, CEO of the University of Phoenix Online. But he surmises that as younger students get involved in online learning, they will want to have more liberal arts courses leading to degrees simply because they are used to an online environment and for the convenience it gives them.

Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness
Internet-supported Learning Study
Published: February 1, 2005
"Achieving Success in Internet-Supported Learning in Higher Education: Case Studies Illuminate Success Factors, Challenges, and Future Directions"
by Rob Abel, Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness

Participants consisted of 21 institutions from the complete spectrum of categories: 4 community colleges, 1 community college consortium, 1 national for-profit college, 2 non-profit public baccalaureate/masters, 4 non-profit private baccalaureate/masters, 8 non-profit public research doctoral, 1 non-profit private research doctoral institution.