Online college education, until recently the province of futurists and fringe correspondence schools, has gone mainstream, with thousands of students logging on to the Internet. But this type of learning is not for everyone. E-college is shaping up as a way to get a degree, with the flexibility Internet classes offer.
Many students insist they have never studied harder.
Exams are often tougher, since reference books are usually allowed, with questions tending to be essay-based. To prevent cheating, some schools require finals to be taken outside the home, with a proctor present. Students also warn that long- distance learning can be hampered by lost papers, garbled discussions and other glitches. Internet connections can be lost right in the middle of lectures, and the time lags faced by all Internet users are especially maddening in a classroom context. Plus, increased bandwidth, new technologies and advances in existing tools are quickly improving the means by which distance learners communicate.