Non-traditional learning isn’t a new idea. For many years, universities have offered continuing education and professional training to adults looking to build their resumés through low-residency programs and video teleconferencing. But for adults saddled with full-time employment, it is a struggle to obtain even a degree, though studies show that higher education equals higher earnings—sometimes as much as 50% higher when an adult makes the jump from high school graduation to bachelor’s degree, and then again from the bachelor’s degree level to the master’s degree level.

With the recent boom in available and affordable technology, pursuing a degree has become as easy as logging on to a personal computer at home, and the major universities throughout the state are all embracing cyber-learning in the virtual classrooms of the future. The business of education is moving online—and none too soon, according to area distance learning coordinators.

“Online degrees are exactly like traditional degrees,” says Stanley Groppel, dean for the Center for Extended and Distance Learning at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville. In addition to noncredit continuing education units, since 2000, Austin Peay has pioneered online education for degree-seeking students, offering dual and concurrent enrollment and off-campus programs and a variety of online credit courses that apply to two-year and four-year degrees.

Austin Peay offers nine online degrees at the associate, baccalaureate and master level. “By accessing a virtual classroom through the Web, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, busy students find that if there is a possibility of furthering their education, the sky is the limit,” Groppel says. Even Liberal Arts colleges, traditionally academic areas considered to be necessarily heavy on classroom discussion time, are coming on board, Groppel says. “This fall, we will offer a master of arts in military history, completely online,” he says, “and I anticipate more liberal arts degrees becoming available online.” In the fall of 2004, Austin Peay had approximately 2,000 enrollments (sections), and that number doubled in one year to 4,120 enrollments in the fall of 2005. With an additional 1,802 enrollments from the Fort Campbell campus and 812 RODP enrollments, Austin Peay totaled 6,734 enrollments overall for the fall 2005 semester. Austin Peay, along with a number of other Tennessee universities, also participates in the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) online degree program (RODP), a program that allows a student to earn credits online from a number of TBR schools and apply them toward their degrees. All TBR institutions are fully accredited and allow students to pursue degrees online from among courses offered at six universities, 13 community colleges and 26 technology centers.

“I’ve been with continuing education for 20 years,” says Beth Dodd, director of Continuing Education (CE) at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, “and most CE departments are picking up online learning as part of their curriculums.” Dodd notes that the first online credit class offered by U.T.-Chattanooga was in 1999—and that was one professor offering an online credit to one student. “This year,” she says, “with the software programs that have been designed for higher education—templates that any professor can use to upload a syllabus and assignments—any great instructor, even with limited computer skills, can teach an online course.”

Through the University of Memphis Online and RODP, four undergraduate degree programs, four graduate degree programs and over 400 courses are available online, including professional studies, nursing, education, teacher education and a master’s in journalism. “The average age of our students ranges from 24 to 50,” says Barbara Belzer, assistant dean for distance education at the University of Memphis. “Content and cost are comparable, but the convenience can’t be beat.” Over 2,000 students are enrolled in online courses at the University of Memphis, and 1,800 through the Regents Online Degree Program. “Our online students are typically working adults,” Belzer says, “and online education means they can learn without being available at the traditional hours.”

“I’ve been involved in distance education for ten years,” says George Hoemann at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Initially, he worked in the program through the school of information sciences, but when the library school wanted to develop a distance education program, a joint effort between U.T. and the University of Virginia, Hoemann coordinated the program. In 2000, he moved to the campus-wide office for distance education and became the assistant dean.

“We use real-time interactive voice-over IP software,” he says, “which was very cutting edge eight years ago. And we were one of the first to use it for graduate education.” The software allows for the close contact and mentorship typically associated with graduate programs, Hoemann says, creating a “face-to-face” experience in a virtual classroom.

U.T.-Knoxville offers 13 semester-based, Web-delivered graduate programs leading to degrees and certificates, and other graduate and undergraduate courses are also available. According to Hoemann, degree programs and courses offered online are taught by the same faculty as those on campus, with the same high academic standards. “Our niche is adult learners who have lives and jobs and cannot uproot their families to be on campus for traditional classes,” Hoemann says. “The program has grown aggressively, but it doesn’t have the same impact on the physical resources of the campus as it would if they were all attending physically.”

In the mid-state, Middle Tennessee State University offers several online degrees and participates in the Regents Online Degree Program and the Regents Online Continuing Education Program as well. “Classes are offered in an interactive format that allows students to access their classes at anytime during the 15 weeks of a semester,” says Dianna Rust, director of academic outreach/distance learning at MTSU. Both bachelor and master level degrees are available, as well as occupational licensure and add-on endorsements for teachers. Through the school of nursing, a student can work entirely online and move through the RN to BSN program.

It’s difficult to determine in these early days of widespread online education what graduation rates are, says Groppel at Austin Peay. “Seventy-five percent of students taking online classes are also taking traditional classes, but we’ve seen enrollments double in the last year, and I expect that growth to continue.” His colleagues at universities across the state concur, citing rapid growth in the last few years in the number of students enrolled in online courses, and a recent change in a federal law governing online offerings that is sure to facilitate the growth of distance learning. In 1992, the so-called “50-percent rule”—because it prevented any college from enrolling more than 50% of its students at a distance in order to offer federal financial aid—was passed by Congress to debilitate fraudulent diploma mills from bilking the government of federal student aid dollars. Most traditional universities were not impacted to any definable degree in those early days of the Internet. But with a PC in nearly every home and the high demand for online courses, most traditional universities began offering quality distance education programs, and in response, Congress lifted the controversial restriction earlier this year.

Quality education at home, at a cost comparable to physically attending a traditional university—but without the stress of mandatory attendance at times typically inconvenient for working adults—is an idea whose time has come. Expanding access to higher education through online education will impact our state’s economy and workforce in a number of definable ways, but primarily by allowing adults interested in quality educational opportunities the ability to pursue advanced degrees and, thus, compete for better jobs.