Online Education Offers Many Advantages

In Arizona, some students are enrolled in all three state universities simultaneously, online.

A small but growing number are taking courses at all three Arizona universities through a program that gives students more flexibility and access to classes.
Students can choose the university that grants their degree and never attend a class there in person.
As part of the Arizona Universities Network, students typically go to class at one university and take online courses at the other two.

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Online education provides possibilities to rural students that would have been inconceivable until recently.

Rural students are at risk of being left out of the latest technological advances, educational opportunities – and jobs, said Hudson, a biochemist who directs the Center for Matrix Biology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“But there is a path to enhanced opportunity,” he said. “I would like to capture that path, and give them hope and understanding.”

On April 10, Hudson and his team of science educators will launch the Aspirnaut Initiative, a unique science education program in Sheridan, Ark., about 30 miles south of Little Rock.

About 15 “high ability” middle and high school students will receive laptop computers, then board a bus equipped with broadband Internet access via cell phone towers.

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Online college enrollment is growing significantly in the midwest:

More than 98 percent of large public colleges and universities (with more than 15,000 students) in the region offer online courses or programs - more than double the percentage of smaller institutions.

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The same thing is happening in the southern US states:

More college students are taking online academic courses at institutions in the 16 member states of the Southern Regional Education Board than ever before, according to an SREB report.

More than 1.1 million students were enrolled in online classes at two- and four-year colleges in SREB states in 2006, a 68 percent increase over the previous year and nearly double the 35 percent national gain.

The report, "Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, Southern Edition," is based on the Sloan Consortium's annual survey of online learning at more than 2,200 colleges and universities in the United States. It shows that the percentage of students using online courses at public institutions is higher on average in SREB states than in the nation. Growth and acceptance patterns also indicate that online learning has made greater inroads in SREB states than in the nation as a whole.

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Online education will allow students to get high quality university educations from any location in the world.

That is a distinct improvement over the current situation, where on-campus education is more likely to emphasise indoctrination as education.

Bypassing the huge on-campus infrastructure for political bias and indoctrination will make the educational experience far more productive.