New technology has allowed educational institutions to take the distance out of distance learning, which has made online degree programs more popular than ever. “Growing by Degrees: Online Education in the US, 2005”, a report published last year by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, gives a very positive outlook on the future of online education. The report indicates that online enrollment in the US increased from 1.98m in 2003 to 2.35m a year later, a growth rate more than 10 times that predicted by the National Center for Education Statistics for the general post-secondary student population.
The earliest inception of e-learning closely resembled a classroom on a CD-ROM, and was structured in such a way as to present students with a rigid format that offered little in the way of a flexible learning environment. Most recently, however, e-learning has evolved from a formal presentation of information to a much more fluid and integrated type of learning. As technology has improved by leaps and bounds, demand for high quality online educational programs has steadily increased. The flexibility of current technology now available has allowed many institutions...