Distance learning becoming part of school life
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The popularity of distance education has spread from colleges to earlier grades, as students in more than one-third of U.S. school districts take courses over the Internet or through video conferences, according to the first federal study of the issue.
From social studies and math to English and computer science, thousands of basic courses are being taught in an unconventional way -- with the teacher and student in different places.
The main reason is that districts want to offer courses that students can't get at their own schools, according to the Education Department study released Wednesday.
Most popular in rural areas and in the southeast and central sections of the country, the distance courses also allow schools to reduce schedule conflicts for students, such as children who take a math class online so they can fit in another band class at school.
Overall, an estimated 36 percent of public school districts, or 5,500 out of more than 15,000 districts, had students enrolled in distance courses in the 2002-03 school year. Most of the students are in high school, but some are in middle school or even elementary school.
About 9 percent of public schools have students in distance courses. But Susan Patrick, who oversees the department's educational technology office, said she expects huge growth.
"As we look at high school reform and wanting to offer more rigorous curriculum, wanting to have highly qualified teachers in math and science, it is a growing option," she said.
For example, an elementary school in a remote area of Alaska may offer its students an online class in math because it lacks a specialist in that subject, Patrick said.
In the study, distance education courses are credit-granting classes in which the enrolled students and the teachers are at different locations. The courses may originate from the local school district, a college or university or a state "virtual" school.
Online, audio or video classes -- live or recorded -- are among the distance courses. Smaller and rural districts rely more on video conferencing, while urban and suburban districts and larger school systems use Internet courses most often, the study found.
The nonprofit Michigan Virtual High School offers about 100 courses, drawing 7,700 individual enrollments last year, mainly from students at public schools. Students communicate with a certified teacher by e-mail, chat with classmates in online discussion groups, get help from an onsite mentor and often take their tests at their home school.
The organization now draws students from 450 high schools, up from 100 when it began in 2002. College-level Advanced Placement courses are highly popular, as they are nationwide.
"It isn't uncommon for parents to stop me and say, 'What is this all about?' " said Robert Currie, the virtual school's executive director. "The popularity is growing because of the flexibility it offers to students, much as it does to adults."
At the college level, enrollment in distance education courses nearly doubled from 1995 to 2001, as more than half of the nation's two-year and four-year colleges offer the courses.
The new research on distance education is the first nationally representative study of such course offerings and enrollments in elementary and secondary schools. It comes from 2003 surveys of public school districts in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The survey found a range of reasons why districts may struggle to expand distance courses, including the costs of course development and concerns about quality.
Yet assessing quality may be easier with an electronic course, Patrick said, because so many measures can be tracked, including the number of times students and teacher interact. That's not as transparent in a traditional class, she said, because "the door is shut."
