World Campus Success Blurs On-Campus, Online Distinctions

January 17, 2003
University Park, Pa. – Successful online education programs like Penn State's World Campus are blurring the distinctions between on-campus and online learning, World Campus leaders told the University's Board of Trustees today (Jan. 17).

            In an informational report to the board, James H. Ryan, vice president for outreach and cooperative extension, and Gary E. Miller, associate vice president for distance education and executive director of the World Campus, said that enrollment, incoming revenue and user satisfaction levels are going strong for the World Campus.

"We anticipate that the World Campus will continue to serve students who do not have access to a campus, but that campus-based students will want to blend online and on-campus experiences," Ryan said.

            According to Miller, 2002-03 World Campus enrollment could top 9,200, up from 5,954 in 2001-02 (and up from 41 in 1997-98, its first year of operation). The projected total includes 2,012 undergraduate and 1,248 postbaccalaureate students. Meanwhile, the World Campus has seen a 35 percent average annual revenue growth during the past three years, rising to more than $4.5 million for 2002-03.

 "Our current students range in age from 25 to 44, are nearly evenly divided between males and females, and come from all 50 states and more than 40 countries," Miller added. "The majority of them say that, because of the circumstances of their lives, they could not take the kind of courses that they take through the World Campus anywhere else."

            Among other offerings, the World Campus has recently introduced the iMBA (Intercollege Master's of Business Administration), a bachelor's of science in Organizational Behavior, alumni seminars, a certificate in Family Literacy, an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and the Ed-Lion Teacher Induction Year Program. The popularity of such new programs bolsters the findings of a recent U.S. General Accounting Office report on online learning that shows that in 2001, one out of every 13 college students, one out of every 10 graduate students, and 1.5 million of 19 million postsecondary students took a distance education course.

There is a strong and growing demand for online education nationally, Ryan and Miller said. They also noted that having the right programs available in flexible formats is critical because, even as Penn State's leadership in the field has been recognized by such organizations as the American Distance Education Consortium, competition between online education providers is increasing.

**gwc**

Contact: Gary W. Cramer, Penn State Department of Public Information, at (814) 865-7517 or gwc104@psu.edu