If you dread the thought of going to college with fresh-faced 18-year-olds, there’s good news – you don’t have to.
In fact, you may not have to set foot on a college campus to get a degree.
Say hello to distance learning, where students can earn everything from certifications to doctorates at far-flung colleges and universities, public and private.
They pay the same fees, buy the same books and do the same work as on-campus students – but without the hassle of trucking to campus or squeezing into uncomfortable plastic chairs.
These are not the bogus diploma mills that churn out degrees on life experience. These are accredited colleges that are increasing their outreach and making it easier for students to go to school.
“This provides more flexibility for learners,” said Kate Carey, executive director of the Ohio Learning Network.
Distance learning combines technologies that were only dreams just a few decades ago. Instructors use videoconferencing, the web, interactive video and videotape as well as possibly on-campus meetings to instruct, test and guide students.
In Ohio, it’s a state Board of Regents strategy to reach a tantalizing market – the 1.5 million Ohioans who have some college education but no degree, Carey said.
And the results have been dramatic.
In state distance learning’s first year in 1999, 17 institutions offered 519 courses. Today, 65 institutions offer as many as 3,500 courses. And many colleges and universities offer distance-learning classes that aren’t on the consortium web site.
It appeals most to independent students 25 to 35 years old – even those who live close to campus, said Karen Swan, a professor of educational technology at Kent State.
Busy students with families and jobs and household chores don’t like to waste time driving to campus, she said. Students who may be shy or overshadowed in class can shine online, she added.
“Every student gets a voice and every voice can be heard,” she said.
Internet connections relay voice (from microphones) and images (from cameras) so that Holland and students on and off site see and hear what’s going on at the other locations in real time on screens at the front and back of their classrooms.
It’s as if they’re all in one class – one class spread over seven locations.
Still, distance learning isn’t for everybody, Carey said: “We all learn in different ways. Some people prefer learning in a collegial, social environment.”
Wesley Emch found it downright intimidating earlier this year.
The Kent resident enrolled in a graduate class in instructional technology at Kent State, not knowing that it would be conducted by distance learning.
Emch, a biology teacher at Cuyahoga Falls High, was apprehensive because he wasn’t fluent in “educationese” and felt his computer skills were minimal.
The class had only one mandatory meeting on campus. Then he was off on his own.
“But once I got started, it was OK,” Emch said. “The nice thing is I can go down to my basement and take the quizzes. There’s not as much pressure. I can do this when and where I want.”
This graduate student thinks he learns more this way. The fog from the early days has faded.
But he’s still a little old-fashioned. He misses the coffee and conversation of a brick-and-mortar classroom.

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