College Distance Education Courses: Evaluating Benefits and Costs from Institutional, Faculty and Students' Perspectives

Overview & Synopsis

The strategic plan for providing college education outside of the traditional classroom environment has rapidly evolved over the past decade via electronic mediums. Advances in technology, along with increasing student enrollment size, have led many higher education institutions to begin offering distance education (web-based) courses. Current literature suggests that fully-blown distance education facilitates and maximizes student learning more effectively than the traditional, face-to-face course format. Many higher education institutions have adopted out-of-the-classroom learning approaches in order to accommodate students working full-time, as well as students with special needs and complex schedules. As modern communication and technological channels improve, distance education outlets are expected to meet this challenge. Although the benefits of distance education are numerous, costs of distance education should also be carefully considered and evaluated. This article evaluates the benefits and costs of distance education from institutional, faculty, and students' perspectives. (Contains 3 tables.)