Distance Education Course Availability is Booming

Posted by David R. Wetzel Feb 24, 2009

Due to the declining economic conditions in the U.S., more colleges and universities are offering a greater number of distance education courses, which is evidenced by the continuing increase in course enrollment.

Reasons why adults need continuing education and advantages of distance education provide inforamtion and resources to support the following information obtained from a report by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES).

A majority of colleges in the United States — 65 percent — offer college-level, credit-granting distance-education courses; according to a survey released by the NCES in Feburary, 2009, an arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

This is another sign that distance education is becoming a staple of college life. Although the survey did not compare the present to the past, recent data from colleges indicate a jump in online enrollment.

The new survey, polled 1,600 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia; 90 percent of them responded.

Courses offered reflected a variety of education methods:

• 61 percent of two- and four-year institutions said they gave online courses (usually meaning all instruction is online)
• 35 percent said they gave hybrid or blended courses (combining online and in-class work)
• 26 percent reported other types of college-level, credit-granting distance-education courses (which might include postal correspondence courses).

Over all, the two- and four-year institutions in the survey estimated 12.2 million enrollments (or registrations) in college-level, credit-granting distance-education courses.

Another approach to earning college credit and speeding up a distance education degree is to earn credit for courses is by passing tests in the College Level Exam Program.