The decision is far more basic than whether or not colleges and universities should embrace distance learning. It is about the fundamental purposes and future directions of higher education. At the heart of the decision are questions as fundamental as who should colleges and universities educate. Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jim O'Neill describes distance learning as the next G. I. Bill. The original G. I. Bill of 1944 opened the doors of higher education wider than they had ever been opened before, more than doubling the size of the student population and enrolling unprecedented numbers of older, minority, part-time, and financially disadvantaged students.
Distance learning promises to open the doors even further.
For the first time higher education could be universally available. The cherished ideal of higher education is Mark Hopkins, the former president of Williams, at one end of a log and a student on the other. It's a romantic and powerful notion, which comports badly with both history and present day reality. Higher education in America is an enterprise with over fourteen million students. The class must have had 1,000 students.