Online education programs are more popular than ever before. For programs that started off online, this just means that business is really taking off. For programs with brick-and-mortar roots, though, increasing online enrollment means it may be time for an agonizing reassessment of the whole scene. Why? Small, distance-learning programs have grown, thanks to the Internet, and many have grown so rapidly and to such an extent that a majority of enrolled students don’t ever step foot on campus.

Becoming a Multimedia Educational Institution
With so many students only attending classes online, a different approach to education is needed. The traditional classroom setting has changed, but what about the university in its entirety? When a school’s enrollment is mostly made up of distance learners, a new strategy is required. At the annual meeting of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, the following issues were discussed:

• Faculty: Standing at the front of a classroom delivering lectures has a certain allure that monitoring an online discussion board does not. Faculty members need to be trained to make the transition from traditional classrooms to the Web–especially when on-campus class demands drop off in favor of online classes. It isn’t as easy as typing up lecture notes and putting them online. It requires the same enthusiasm and creativity that traditional teaching does, but conveyed in a radically different environment. Traditional, in-classroom education is no longer the norm, and curricula need to be re-geared with this in mind.
• Community Ties: Colleges with strong community ties may find it difficult to make the change over to programs.more online-oriented programs. This is especially true of schools that don’t have a higher tuition for out-of-state students. With students spread–sometimes–all over the globe, working closely with local companies for internships, guest lecturers, etc. takes on entirely different logistical difficulties. Companies looking to support local schools, might also be turned off to learn that their money is going to fund students hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.
• Technology Issues: Small colleges that have seen their online programs explode face the problem of staying on top of technology demands. One of the main points of getting an education online is being able to work at any time, from any place–when the system keeps crashing, this doesn’t really work anymore. Schools with a burgeoning online enrollment need to make sure that they can handle the stress put on their servers, lest they face thousands upon thousands of disgruntled students yelling, “The server ate my term paper!”

The lesson here is that planning is the most important part of any major transition. Students should keep these points in mind as well. It never hurts to know what your professors are going through. Many are learning how to teach online while they’re busy teaching their courses.