Sunday, October 18, 2009

University World News - US: Online education's outrageous fortune?


University World News - US: Online education's outrageous fortune?:

"Imagine training to become a Certified Professional Midwife online. You can at Aviva Institute of Duluth, Minnesota. Opportunities like this may seem promising, especially in the context of economic uncertainty or when full-time, on-campus study is not an option. But should traditional brick-and-mortar universities be concerned?

Kevin Carey, Policy Director for Education Center, thinks they should. In a recent article published in the Washington Monthly, he suggests that many universities risk following the recent experience of newspapers against the tide of new media.

The statistics tend to corroborate his observations: more than four million college students or 20% of those in the US took at least one online class in 2008 and, of these, about one in 10 enrolled in exclusively internet-based programmes."