Hitting Re-Set: Higher Education and Disruptive Technology - Louis Conrad, Degrees Online

"More and more students are getting degrees from South Dakota public universities without ever stepping foot on the six traditional college campuses," reports an October 22, 2011 Argus Leader article. "Enrollment in online courses and at the state's three university centers is up from five years ago, according to a study released recently to the Board of Regents." The South Dakotans piling into online courses fit the profile of the typical distance learner. Specifically, these scholars are:

• Part-time undergraduates;
• Aged somewhere between 25 and 45;
• Incapable of attending traditional classroom courses because family and job responsibilities prevent them.

Burgeoning enrollment in online course has led to an incipient parallel system of education, with one track consisting of familiar residential higher learning, and the other of online and other distance-learning instructional delivery modalities."'It's a separate market, but a growing one," observes a South Dakota distance learning expert about online education. "'A working adult really does need the convenience and flexibility that distance education provides.'"