Sunday, January 16, 2011

Online classes a growing trend

Online classes a growing trend

Online classes a growing trend

Posted: 16 Jan 2011 08:05 PM PST

Nicole McCormick, 21, never has been to Herkimer County Community College, but she's enrolled in two classes there.

McCormick is full-time Siena College student but wants to get into an accelerated nursing program that starts this spring. She needed to take "Developmental Psychology" and "Nutrition," and found them online – at HCCC.

She is one of an increasingly growing number of students who are taking individual classes – and sometimes whole courses of study – online.

Last fall, 5.6 million students nationwide took at least one class online, according to the Sloan Consortium, a nonprofit organization that seeks to integrate online education into mainstream education. And it's growing. Sloan reports that online enrollment grew more than 20 percent in 2009.

"Today, as of (the fall semester), 35 to 38 percent of our entire student body take one online course per semester," said Linda Lamb, associate dean of continuing education at HCCC. "The national average is about 30 percent, so we're on the high end of that."

There are 18 associate degrees and three certificates available to student who never set foot on campus.

McCormick said her winter classes are hard. That's partly due to the fact that a full semester course is being compressed into a month, but it's also due to the required participation.

Students in a traditional classroom can sit back and let others carry the conversation. In her online class, McCormick has been writing nonstop, penning required 100- to 300-word responses to other student's conversations – as many 30 a day.

"I don't really sleep anymore," McCormick said.

"For many students the quality of the instruction in the online classroom is better than the quality in the classroom," said Bill Pelz, professor of psychology and coordinator of the Online Academy at HCCC.

No cell phones are going off, no one is disrupting class, he said, and since you have to contribute to the conversation, you actually get to know your classmates better, even if you've never actually met them.

Alison Carr-Chellman, a Penn State professor who has studied education's expansion to the web, was extremely skeptical when she started looking at it a decade ago.

"The experience cannot be the same experience in the classroom," she said. "The question is: Does the difference make a difference?"

It's different, yes, she said, and for some people it works well.

Online courses work best when you have a professor on the other end of the computer, implementing a course that was designed for the Internet.

"In general what we see, it depends on how many students you have, how many faculty you have and what you pay them," Carr-Chapman said.

For nonprofit institutions, some of the growth has to do with finding new sources of revenue because of reductions in state aid.

"They're looking for ways to open new markets," Carr-Chellman said.

In local online offerings, HCCC is not alone. Mohawk Valley Community College has four two-year associate degrees that can be taken completely online, along with numerous certificate courses.

"Aside from fully online degree programs, lots of students mix and match online courses with on-ground instruction to quickly progress through their degree requirements and still balance academics with other things they need to do in their lives," MVCC spokesman Matthew Snyder said in an e-mailed response to questions.

"MVCC's online enrollment has grown rapidly and steadily for the last three years, 10 to 12 percent per semester. Overall college enrollment has grown more than 20 percent during this time. Eight days before the start of the spring semester, our online headcount is 1,293 and counting."

SUNYIT also has an online program, offering seven master's degrees, two master's in business administration degrees and two bachelor's degrees.

Neither Colgate University and Hamilton College have online classes. Students at both institutions live on campus, and the focus is in the classroom. Utica College, another private institution, does have online classes – including a doctorate degree in physical therapy. Its cyber-security program offers an online bachelor's or master's degree along with six other master's-level online programs and three other bachelor programs. The Utica School of Commerce, a private for-profit institution offers over 70 online courses.

SUNYIT, HCCC and MVCC are part of the award-winning SUNY Learning Network, a partnership with State University of New York campuses across the state that provides support to those campuses. There are no server farms on HCCC's campus; it's supported by SLN, which has servers in Albany and Buffalo.

That doesn't mean there aren't costs.

The offset is the training and the enrichment opportunities for teachers," Lamb said. "What we don't invest in lights and heat we have in tech costs. I think it's a wash."

Costs for online classes vary and depend on whether you are enrolled, have financial aid or are taking just a class or two. McCormick, who fits into the last category, said her two classes cost between $700 and $800, plus $120 for books.

Despite the rapid growth of online classes, Lamb said there always will be a place for a real classroom.

"Online learning is not for everyone," she said. "I think there will always be a core group of students" that learn best in a classroom. "There's room for both," she said. "It's just another option for learners."

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