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Distance Education
is thriving today with the advent of technology-supported
communication tools, especially the Internet and World Wide
Web. Traditional universities and new dot-com companies are
jumping on the distance education bandwagon, competing to develop
distance education programs that take advantage of new and improved
methods of distance education delivery. A recent U.S. Department
of Education's National Center for Educational Statitics (NCES)
survey reported that from 1994-1995 to 1997-98 the number of
distance education degree programs increased by 72 percent.
(16)
The purpose, user profiles, delivery and learning environment,
advantages and disadvantages involved in distance education
is different today than it was in the past. These pages will
provide an overview of the current state of Distance Education
based on recent published reports, personal interviews, and
articles on distance education.
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The NCES reported the following statistics
on Distance Education for the 1997-98
academic year (16):
- About 1/3 of the nation's 2 and 4 year institutions
of higher education offered distance education courses.
- An estimated 54,470 different distance education
courses were offered, most (49,690 were college-level, credit
granting courses)
- Enrollments in distance education courses
was estimated at 1,661,100
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Distance
Education Synonyms
- Cyber Education
- Online Education
- Virtual Education
- Technology-supported Education
- Web-based Education
- Hybrid Education
- Extended Learning
- Distance Learning
- E-learning
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Distance
Education Programs
Improvements in digital technologies have greatly
expanded the number and type of educational institutions that
offer distance education programs. In a recent article in the
Chronicle of Higher Education, Arthur Levine defined
three basic types of colleges & universities that are emerging
today
(11):
"Brick Universities" - traditional
residential institutions
"Click Universities" - new, usually commercial
institutions, also known as "virtual universities"
"Brick & Click Universities" - a combination
of traditional & virtual universities
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