Working full-time but want that college degree or those continuing professional education units? In the Harrisburg area you have several options as many colleges, universities, and training schools have local campuses with undergraduate or graduate courses offered weeknights and/or on the weekend. But you don’t necessarily have to get into your car and go to the class, and you don’t necessarily have to attend a local institution of higher learning. You can attend school “virtually” anywhere, and you need go only as far as your home or office computer.

Most colleges and universities have “independent learning,” meaning the student controls the time, place, and pace of study. Within the rubric of independent learning is the option of “distance learning” (a kind of modern version of correspondence school), whereby the course material is offered other than, or in addition to, the on-site classroom setting. Distance learning is a rapidly growing educational option for working adults who want a convenient, flexible, self-paced and, depending on the extent to which the student need not be in class, an often less expensive higher education opportunity. Some distance learning options involve physically being in class and using a variety of media, such as videoconferencing (e.g. PIC-TEL) and computer programs. Other distance learning courses may be taken completely off-site using printed material, kits and models, audio and/or video cassettes, computer disks and/or CD-ROMs, and — the most current “high-tech” option — online instruction via the Internet.

Admittedly, south central Pennsylvania higher education institutions are somewhat slow in coming aboard this fast-moving train. This is particularly true for the private liberal arts colleges, such as Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, Elizabethtown, York, Lebanon Valley, and Wilson, which have no or limited online coursework, though they do have web sites, accept online applications, and use the Internet as research and communication tools.

The larger area universities are more advanced in the use of the Internet, given that they have the greater financial and technological resources. Temple University Harrisburg (TUH), for example, which offers a variety of graduate and professional certificate programs and is starting undergraduate courses in social work this fall, has a growing distance learning capability. Onsite there are courses using the PIC-TEL videoconferencing technology, and every semester there is at least one course offered completely online — usually in the business and journalism programs. Information about these programs can be accessed through the University’s “Online Learning Program” (http://oll.temple.edu/oll/) or the TUH web site at www.temple.edu.harrisburg.

TUH academic advisor Darlene Spengler says that online courses currently constitute only a small percentage of Temple’s instruction, but she predicts this will change as faculty become more proficient with the medium and as the demand grows. However, she doesn’t see online instruction as ultimately replacing on-site, classroom instruction.

“Online education won’t take the place of human contact, and many programs, such as ours in social work, rely on interaction among students and the professor. We can’t forget that there’s a whole other element to education — that of the feeling of belonging. Not all people can learn online; some need to hear themselves and others.”

Penn State is also a big player in distance learning. Numerous certificate and degree programs serve students worldwide using multiple media. The programs have a specific number of courses, which in turn have a specific number of lessons to be completed within a recommended time frame. Costs include tuition, processing fees, materials (e.g. study guide, textbooks and/or videotapes). For more information online: www.cde.psu.edu/DE/Catalog/information/works.html.

In addition to its online independent learning through distance education, PSU has a new, Internet-based “World Campus” (www.outreach.psu.edu,) which specializes in career programs, offering five associate degrees and a dozen certificate programs, with some 30 credit programs projected by the year 2002.

At PSU Harrisburg, which offers upper division and graduate level programs, Dr. Gayle Yaverbaum, professor of Information Systems and Director of graduate programs in the School of Business Administration, uses the Internet extensively, as a “wonderful get-together spot for non-traditional students.” Currently, two Information Systems courses use the web for small group “asynchronous” discussions, meaning the exchanges are not in “real” time, but rather occur at the participant’s discretion (similar to but more sophisticated than a listserv). Additionally, a year-long project, developed by faculty, designers, and students, has recently been completed for the student teaching program, featuring an interactive and animated web site called “New Teacher’s Dilemma” (www.hbg.psu.edu/ets/educ470/home/frame/f0home1.html).

“We’re also in the process of testing a pilot project this fall,” Yaverbaum adds, “in which we’ve completely wired a room for plug-ins of laptops we’re giving to undergraduates in two business administration and information systems courses. When they come into the classroom they’ll plug in for coursework presented by the on-site instructor, and then do their homework via modem or software. In January, we’ll be wiring a second room.” Online, you can reach PSU Harrisburg at www.hbg.psu.edu.

Numerous other institutions of higher learning around the country have “virtual” campuses, or participate in online partnerships, such as New Promise Online Education (www.caso.com/index.phtml), which features such diverse institutions as Penn State, Michigan State, RIT, SUNY, Syracuse University, Boise State University, and the University of Wisconsin. Also, sites such as www.yipinet.com specialize in continuing professional education in accounting, financial services, health care and law, and even offers a guarantee: if your state board doesn’t accept their credits, they’ll refund your money. The University of Kansas has medical school and graduate pharmacy programs online (http://eagle.cc.ukans.edu~cte/VirtualColleges.html), and Southern California University for Professional Studies in Santa Ana, California (www.scups.edu/) bills itself as “The University for Distance Learning.” All of California’s online higher education offerings can be found at www.california.edu.

But when you talk to educators about online higher education, the first name that comes to mind is University of Phoenix Online (www.uophx.edu/online/). This “virtual campus” offers 11 B.S. programs, of which five are in marketing, five in information technology, and one in nursing; master’s programs in education, organizational management, business administration, computer information systems, and nursing; and a doctorate program in organizational leadership.

The school has 500 faculty members who have both academic and “real world” experience. Each class shares its own group mailbox, or “electronic classroom,” using the group forum for exchanging discussion and work prior to submission for on-line review and grading by the instructor. Classes are offered consecutively, so students can enroll at any time, and each class lasts between five and six weeks, requiring approximately 15 to 20 hours a week of work for successful completion. However, most of the work is conducted offline and the active online participation involves only about one to two hours per month of “connect” time. Students must be at least 23 years old, have a high school diploma, and if not employed, “have access to an organizational environment appropriate for the application of the theoretical concepts learned in class.” There is a $58 application fee and a $75 student service fee, and courses cost $375 per credit hour for undergraduate classes, and $470 per credit hour per graduate class.