By DAN CARNEVALE
In its second survey of distance-education programs, the U.S. Department of Education has found that their number increased by 72 percent, to 1,190, from 1995 to 1998.
The survey found that 1,680 institutions offered a total of about 54,000 online-education courses in 1998, with 1.6 million students enrolled. Certificate programs grew from 170 to 330 during the same period.
The growth in both degree and certificate programs, however, resulted more from from the expansion of online offerings by institutions with existing distance-learning programs than from additional colleges' creating online-education courses. In 1998, 44 percent of higher-education institutions offered distance-education courses, up from 33 percent in 1995.
The numbers come from a report released in December by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Education Department officials who reviewed the report said it offered more questions than answers. "You're changing the fundamental delivery constraints in traditional higher education, and we don't know what that means," said Marshall Smith, acting deputy secretary of education. "We do know that the world is fascinated about this."
The data show that public institutions are going into distance education much faster are than private institutions. In 1997, 79 percent of public four-year institutions and 72 percent of public two-year institutions offered distance-education courses, compared with 22 percent of private four-year institutions and 6 percent of private two-year ones.
The size of an institution is also a factor: 87 percent of those with 10,000 or more students offered distance-education courses, as did 75 percent of those with 3,000 to 10,000 students, compared with 19 percent of colleges with fewer than 3,000 students.
Department officials speculated that the newness of the industry and the costs associated with starting up a program may deter some institutions from online programs. Lee Fritschler, assistant secretary of postsecondary education, said some colleges don't see a need to expand into the realm of distance education.
"Some of the private schools, especially some of the smaller ones, just don't have the mission of off-campus education," Mr. Fritschler said at a briefing here for reporters.
One key concern, officials said, is whether online courses are as good as traditional courses. The educational value of online programs, they said, needs to keep pace with their popularity. The spread of online courses "begins to raise the question about quality," Mr. Smith said. "This is going to heighten the importance of gathering performance data."
Sally Johnstone, director of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, said students should be aware of course quality. Institutions will respond to students' demands for quality as eagerly as they have responded to those for distance education, she said, arguing that "students are pushing institutions to behave differently."
Noting that the report's data are already two years old, department officials said that if the same survey were undertaken today, it would probably show an even larger increase in the number of online courses. At the time the information was collected, during the 1997-98 academic year, an additional 20 percent of the institutions planned on starting distance-education programs within three years. "Over all, what we're seeing here is some data at the tip of the iceberg," Mr. Smith said.
With almost half of American colleges and universities experimenting with online education, the Department of Education should support such programs' growth, said Mr. Fritschler, the assistant secretary. Already, the Education Department provides some grants to distance-education providers, and it is considering how its financial-aid standards affect online programs.
The government should pay attention to the popularity of online education, said Mr. Fritschler. "It puts us in the position of supporting this revolution and helping it flourish. We want to see this phenomenon grow."
The survey revealed that in the 1997-98 academic year:
* The Internet became the medium of choice for most institutions providing distance education. The proportion of those offering asynchronous courses on the Internet increased to 60 percent, from 22 percent in 1995. The proportion providing synchronous courses on the Internet increased to 19 percent from 14 percent during the same period. Meanwhile, the proportion of institutions that used two-way interactive video dropped by 1 percentage point, to 56 percent, and the proportion that used recorded video courses dropped by 4 points, to 48 percent.
* Seventy-seven percent of institutions kept the tuition for similar online and traditional courses the same, and 66 percent of institutions didn't charge additional fees for distance-education courses. It was unclear whether on-campus and off-campus students who paid the same amount received equal services.
* Of the colleges with distance-education programs, 70 percent offered courses in English, the humanities, and the social and behavioral sciences; 55 percent offered courses in business and management; 36 percent in health care; 32 percent in mathematics; 29 percent in education; 26 percent in computer science; 17 percent in vocational and technical fields; 12 percent in engineering; 7 percent in agriculture and natural resources; and 6 percent in library and information sciences. Still other courses were offered by 16 percent of the institutions.
The report is available here.
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