Miller recognized the fact that students may go home for the summer or participate in co-ops. With a course offered online as part of distance education, it gives students with otherwise limited access options for flexibility. Twelve to 13 percent of graduate students are currently served by distance education, as opposed to seven percent three years ago, said Miller. Three percent of NCSU undergraduates use distance education, up from one percent three years ago. This also helps the university alleviate crowding and serve even more students.
Distance education is one solution to reaching more students while also avoiding overcrowding.
Unfortunately, we could only afford to fund about a third of the proposals. This response shows that the NCSU community is interested in building this capability, Miller said. All features of distance education and learning technology are being bolstered. In the works are more training sessions for students and faculty who will be teaching Web-based courses. Also in the future is the hiring of teams of instructional designers who will work to support the development of distance education programs.