METRO Education Focus December 16, 2003 What is distance education?   The programs that we offer are all online education programs, most of which students never require that people come to campus. They are instructor lead and fully online. It’s just like taking a course on campus. You start with a group of students, listen to, or in this case read some content, spend time talking about the content (online). Students hold discussions through chat-boards online throughout the weekend and many of our instructors offer synchronized chat sessions once a week. Is the online program as effective as traditional classroom learning? I’m a traditional academic myself and this is one of the most rewarding initiatives I’ve ever been involved with. People really have the chance to engage in their education. I’ve seen what it takes for an adult learner to get to class. You work all day, perhaps pick up the kids and deal with the stress of everyday life. Then you have to drive to a campus, find a place to park and sit in a classroom for three hours listening to a professor, taking notes and possible having some sort of discussion. Online, you log in when you’re ready to learn. You do some reading, you have some ideas and you actually participate in the discussion, all at your convenience. When I teach online, the height of my class activity is Sunday afternoon through Sunday night. Students talk online, really flush out their ideas and build their thinking. I believe that this program is actually better than face to face for adults. How can you tell if an online program is reputable? It’s a big question for students that they need to sort through. I encourage students to only deal with accredited, reputable programs. A lot of things were being thrown up on the Web and called education programs. But students, especially adult learners, know right away when they are in a bad program. They need the program to do well so they don’t tolerate anything less. Fortunately the industry really shakes itself out. If I were a student, I wouldn’t go near any program that is not accredited.