Distance learning

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University of Maryland University College has gone the distance in its approach to distance learning.

With a worldwide student body of 87,197, it is the largest public university in the country offering online classes, with 650 courses available in 91 undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs and typically 22 to 25 students in a class. Enrollment figures for the fall 2003 semester -- the latest available -- include about 57,500 U.S. military members and their dependents.

The next-largest enrollment -- 16,485 -- is of Maryland residents.

UMUC, one of 11 schools in the state university system, is expected to account for one-third of all students in the state system by 2011.

The term "distance learning" encompasses every kind of educational program, including correspondence courses, in which a student does not meet face to face with an instructor. More frequently these days, it refers to online computer-facilitated programs that link a teacher and student electronically.

Northern Virginia Community College, which has offered extensive online courses for seven years, enrolls 7,000 online students each semester out of a total of about 60,000 students.

General-studies degrees are the most popular for online students because they prepare students for transfer to a four-year college, but also popular are two-year certificate degrees, which include technical and business subjects.

Students' median age, says Monica Sasscer, the community college's associate vice president for instructional technology, is 26 or 27 and dropping. One-third of the faculty has been specially trained in online teaching techniques.

"Different disciplines have different needs," she points out, "but in general, even lab courses can be held online."

Beyond the online courses, Nova, as the college is widely known, has been in distance learning for a long time, promoting tele-course education through public television, says John Sener, an online consultant formerly at Nova, which has been involved in adult education for 30 years.