• Community colleges — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

  • Online learning opens doors wider for students in tough economy

  • expand online learning for strategic purposes: 1) to be able to offer access to education in the absence of funds to construct buildings; 2) to provide our students with courses and degrees entirely online, which reduces  their need to commute to one of our campuses; 3) to enable higher education to "fit into" the busy and complicated lives of our students; and, 4) to position Broward College as an accessible, affordable and convenient provider of higher education. This year, 10 percent of our enrollment will be attributable to online students, and that comes during a year when our "traditional" student enrollments will increase by more than 10 percent.

  • Already we have close to 200 courses online and nine full degrees and four certificates that are accessible on our website, http://www.broward.edu . We will be embracing the notion of "blended learning" for those that prefer a mix of the best of traditional and online learning.

  • in an era of diminishing state support, we must find ways to reduce cost while increasing access. Clearly, the face-to-face model cannot be sustained in an era of diminished public support and demand for increased access. Nor can higher education increase degree production, as we need to do, by building capacity through tuition increases that make higher education unaffordable. We must build in new ways — we must reach out to adults to help them complete their college education while maintaining employment, and we must use redesigned online learning opportunities to connect with students.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.