With the Internet, distance learning in higher education has come a long way since correspondence courses were sent through the mail. And technology like Web streaming has made online learning more like a real classroom experience.

As colleges increase their Web-based offerings, demand is growing for online teachers. That is bringing new job opportunities but also some concerns.

“The number of online teachers needed has increased because enrollment has increased,” said Jeff Seaman, survey director for the Sloan Consortium, a non-profit group that studies trends in online learning. Nearly 3.5 million students were taking online courses in the fall of 2006, the most recent data available, Mr. Seaman said. That was up nearly 10 per cent from the previous year.

Tom Ermolovich, an adjunct management professor at Northeastern University in Boston, gives lectures using streaming video that remote students can view online. “I think the videos make the online experience more interesting for the online student, who may feel isolated,” he said.

Terry Baron, a former marketing executive who teaches a 10-week online course on industrial psychology at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, maintains virtual office hours once a week; students post messages on a Web bulletin board. “I run it all from home and don’t have an office at Marist,” she said.

Ms Baron said she never dreamed she would be able to teach at a college. “When I first started doing this I wasn’t sure how I’d do but now I have fallen in love with teaching,” she said.

In general, teachers and students of Internet classes are rarely online at the same time. The professors create their lessons and post them online, and students have access to the information whenever they wish.

“I can be anywhere, “ said Peter Bemski, an online professor in the MBA program at Regis University. “I started a class sitting at my desk at Regis. Then I went to Brazil for two weeks, then a workshop in Chicago and continued teaching my class. I don’t miss a beat.”

But that kind of flexibility can come at a price. Most professors agree that one disadvantage of online learning is a loss of real-time interaction with students.

Stephen Ruth, professor of public policy and technology management at George Mason University, said that while online classes could be very effective, they were “not on par, in my opinion, with traditional classes at top-tier universities.” One reason is that “the general ambience of the class provides a better experience,” he said.

Some in academia also say that online learning has created a second tier of instructors who work hard but are paid less than traditional professors.

“A great number of teachers who do distance learning tend to be part-timers and a full-time professor gets maybe 10 times more to teach a course,” Professor Ruth said.”

Merrily Stover, a full-time online professor of anthropology for the University of Maryland University College in Adelphi, acknowledges that she could make more if she were a tenured professor at a local university teaching regular courses. But she was able to keep her teaching job by working online from home in Oroville, Calif.

“E-learning made it possible for me to stay connected with my university and continue teaching,” she said.

LEARNING VIA WEBSTREAMING

More than two-thirds of all higher-education institutions in the US have online offerings.
Students have access to information whenver and from wherever they want.
Flexibility comes at a price as online learning is a loss of real-time interaction with students.