Region's continuing ed sees boom in online learning
Local enrollment figures mirror national trend
More students than ever are taking courses online, according to a national report, and area institutions are increasing their efforts to attract students who are short on time. The Sloan Consortium, an organization dedicated to educating institutions about online learning, estimates that 40 percent more students nationwide took online courses in the Fall of 2005 over the previous year.
Assumption College in Worcester reports similar increases for its current academic year. Last year, when online enrollment began at Assumption’s Continuing Education department in Fall 2005, enrollment was 20 percent over projections; this year, enrollments exceeded projections by 40 percent. Charlene Martin, dean of continuing education at Assumption, says the convenience factor stands tantamount to other benefits, particularly for the overstretched boomer generation that’s often taking care of both their children and their parents. Assumption wants to reach out to more online students from Connecticut and Southern New Hampshire, says Martin.
David Kelley expects online education to continue to grow. Kelley is executive director of Massachusetts Colleges Online, a consortium of community and state colleges geared towards furthering online education. He says online enrollment is the product of an improving economy putting people back to work, and higher gas prices deterring students from commuting to campus.
One of the 15 schools involved with MCO is Framingham State College, which has been steadily increasing its efforts to sign up more online students without overextending its faculty. FSC and other institutions belonging to MCO have begun to share professors to accommodate growth in enrollments and, only recently, opened up the online offerings to undergraduates. Professors who teach in the classroom are also teaching online in an effort to keep the quality of teaching high, says FSC president Timothy Flanagan.
But Flanagan points to the declining number of high school students as a signal to offer those students the opportunity to take college classes online. The sons and daughters of baby boomers number far less than the baby boomer generation, he says, and colleges must attract them while they’re still in high school - a task that’s easier done with an online curriculum that can showcase the school’s programs to potential undergraduates. Flanagan says success lies in blending the traditional classroom experience with distance learning. "[The online program] is a natural extension of our role as a public university," he says.
Laurie Albert, associate dean for online programs at Nichols College in Dudley, says that its online MBA program has seen its enrollment jump from 1,132 in 2002 to 2,050 in the current academic year. Nichols recently embarked on a new segment of online teaching with a new program dubbed Continuous Enrollment, allowing students the freedom to enroll at any time through the course of a semester. The success is evident, says Albert: "We have yet to have a single week when people have not enrolled online."
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