By the year 2002, SKC expects to have developed at least two Internet-based degree programs and possibly as many as eight, three of them bachelor degrees. The SKC research team and others see obvious advantages to distance education. It is unlikely that every reservation in the country can develop a tribal college, but most of them potentially could receive courses from tribal colleges and universities. Many tribal colleges cannot grow because they do not have dormitories, but distant students live in their own homes. Tribal colleges attract students who cannot leave their communities because of family and cultural responsibilities.
Distance education can reduce the their isolation.
Some of the advantages are already being realized by tribal colleges. Students at Little Big Horn College have conversed with renowned scientists from around the world whom they could not otherwise meet on the Crow Reservation in southern Montana. Using technology, the students at tribal colleges such as Leech Lake Tribal College in Minnesota and Fort Berthold Tribal College in North Dakota now can stay in their communities, surrounded by their cultural teachers, and access four year degrees from other universities, some of them tribal universities. By attracting distant students, tribal colleges can increase their pool of resources for developing curriculum. Tribal college faculty, other teachers, and health care providers in the communities can get in-service training and continuing education without traveling.