Online degrees available

An IU four-year bachelor's degree can be earned without ever setting foot in a classroom. Or even Bloomington. \nIndiana University is the first institution of higher learning in the state to offer a four-year bachelor's degree entirely online. \nIU has offered distance classes in correspondence format for many years. The School of Continuing Studies has worked the past two years to create online courses from these "pen-and-paper" versions. As of July 2002, the 120 credit hours needed to earn a Bachelor of General Studies can be obtained entirely online. An Associate of Arts in General Studies can also be earned online by completing 60 credit hours.\n"We continue to add to our online course inventory," said Joann Brown, director of marketing and communication for the School of Continuing Studies. "Eventually all our courses, more than 200 university courses and 100 high school courses will be available online."\nStudents can enroll in a variety of classes. There are online courses in anthropology, computer science, history, comparative literature, fine arts, political science and more. IU professors and doctoral students teach the courses. \nOnce a student enrolls they can find all their course information online. The syllabus, lessons, assignments and activities are all available on the Internet. However, textbooks must be purchased for most courses. The online courses' syllabus and textbooks are often similar to what a student would see in an IU classroom. All communication with the professor is done completely through e-mail and assignments are turned in over the Web. Professors said the online work makes their job easier.\n"All I have to do is get to the site," Phyllis Taylor said, an online professor of Fine Arts. "I don't have to drag the big stack of grade cards and learning guides with me."\nThe online courses were not designed for the average college students. Most of the people who are enrolling in the program are working adults. Jeremy Dunning, Dean of the School of Continuing Studies, said it will probably take the majority of online students six to eight years to earn their bachelor's degree. \nThe online classes are extremely flexible. Students have one year to complete a semester of work. The course information is available online 24 hours a day. This allows people to work at their own time and pace.\n"You can study when and where you choose -- late at night after the children are in bed, on your lunch hour, or on a plane to your next meeting," Brown said.\nThe flexibility also means that students must be disciplined. Some online students said this is one reason they feel this program may be more difficult than attending regular classes, Dunning said. \n"The student must have a clear idea of their educational goals and the organization and discipline to set a study schedule and stick to it," Brown said.\nStudents in the online program have other hurdles to overcome. Contact with their professors is limited. Therefore they are not able to have their questions answered as quickly as students who attend regular classes. But Taylor said this does not create a huge problem.\n"People often think of questions later as they are reading their assignments or trying to do the essays required for the course," Taylor said. "With either environment, you probably aren't able to discuss your question with the professor at the moment you want to."\nTaylor said that even though she has students as far away as the Caribbean, India, and Malaysia, she still has the opportunity to know her students on a personal level.\n"One aspect I like about the online course is that it includes information on each student, including their info sheet which state their reason for taking the course and their life goals," Taylor said.\nOnline degrees and courses are growing in popularity. This is the first year Taylor's fine arts course has been offered and about two dozen students have enrolled. Brown estimates that by the end of 2002 there will be 2,230,000 people enrolled in online classes nationwide.