Could you imagine attending college from the comforts of your own home? Personally, I find that concept amazing. Distance Learning has opened the opportunity for everybody to go to college. According to the CQ Researcher, "More than 1,600 postsecondary schools offer some 54,000 Internet-based courses to an estimated 1.6 million students enrolled in online courses and degree programs, not only at traditional colleges but also at institution that exist only in cyberspace." You might ask "What is Distance Learning?" Distance Learning is defined as learning that takes place via electronic media that links instructors and students who are not together in a classroom.There are so many advantages to distance learning. Of the world's population, only 1 percent attends college. What about the other 99 percent? Distance learning could be the solution to that problem. The CQ Reseaecher says, " For one thing, they say that distance learning will greatly bolster access to higher education for those without the means or opportunity to attend a brick-and-mortar school, such as working mothers, minorities, low-income persons and the disanbled."It would open up possibilities for so many people, like Matt Stinson who earned his bachelor's degree in the computer science at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. Stinson had planned to return to college to get his MBA, but his job working 70 hours a week, made that impossible. "Getting and advanced degree was something that I always planned to do," Stinson says. "But here it is five years after graduating, and I had yet to do that. None of the traditional methods would work for me." Stinson is now working on his MBA at Jones International University. "I can be in a hotel, or at the airport, or any where in the world and I can get my work done," Stinson said. "I"m very satisfied with the quality of the program ---- I think I"m getting more out of it than I would have at a traditional school.
