Monday, April 23, 2007

Louisiana among states leading nation in online learners

Today's post comes from the Shreveport Times. Students in Rachel Basco's respiratory therapy class are all over the map. Some students are actually in the Bossier Parish Community College classroom with her and other students Basco teaches are at the Rapides Learning Center Alexandria.

The students who take the class off-site and through compressed video on the Internet are among the thousands of students in Louisiana who take advantage of electronic education.In fact, Southern states lead the nation in growth of the number of college students taking online classes, according to a report published by the Sloan Consortium in partnership with the Southern Regional Education Board.

"The No. 1 reason people take online classes is because of the flexibility it offers," said Kathleen Gay, director of education technology at BPCC. "We see an increase in our students who are trying to juggle work and/or family. This seems to be a mode that suits their lifestyle better."More than 1.1 million students were enrolled in online classes at two- and four-year colleges in Southern states, a 68 percent increase from 2005 and nearly twice as much as the 35 percent national increase in students taking online courses across the nation, the report said. To read the rest of this article click here.

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