Distance Learning; Net-Savvy Universities Seeing Huge Enrollments

Byline: Ann Geracimos, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

University of Maryland University College has gone the distance in its approach to distance learning.

With a worldwide student body of 87,197, it is the largest public university in the country offering online classes, with 650 courses available in 91 undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs and typically 22 to 25 students in a class. Enrollment figures for the fall 2003 semester - the latest available - include about 57,500 U.S. military members and their dependents.

The next-largest enrollment - 16,485 - is of Maryland residents.

UMUC, one of 11 schools in the state university system, is expected to account for one-third of all students in the state system by 2011.

The term "distance learning" encompasses every kind of educational program, including correspondence courses, in which a student does not meet face to face with an instructor. More frequently these days, it refers to online computer-facilitated programs that link a teacher and student electronically.

Northern Virginia …

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Publication information: Article title: Distance Learning; Net-Savvy Universities Seeing Huge Enrollments. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: July 5, 2004. Page number: B01. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group.

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