The laptop may become the next textbook and the chat room a substitute classroom at local colleges as they boost enrollment in online programs.
Distance learning is up by double-digit margins for most local schools over the late 1990s, when online learning programs began. Programs are expanding in both scope and reach: Some schools boast international students....
At the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Interim Dean Kim Schatzel of the school of management said the school offers two of its graduate degrees online: an MBA and a master's of finance degree. About 110 graduate students are enrolled entirely online. They are from 28 states and 14 countries. Schatzel said a part-time degree online program also provides flexibility."Sometimes a student will begin a program but then take a job transfer or assignment, or move, and the online program is the way they can still complete their degree," she said.
Source: Crain's Detroit Business