| According to a recent survey conducted by The | | | | Health and Administration, Mathematics, Statistics, |
| Sloan Consortium, an online education group, at least | | | | Psychology, Political Science, Economics, Social Service |
| 2.3 million people took some kind of online course in | | | | and women's studies. |
| 2004. The survey also reports that two-thirds of the | | | | Students interested in online courses can take classes |
| colleges offering on-campus courses also offer online | | | | on the Internet, except practical work for courses |
| courses. Some schools report that online learning | | | | such as health related programs and engineering, |
| courses, originally intended for distance education, are | | | | which requires to be done in a lab. Almost all general |
| surprisingly popular with on-campus students. | | | | education and accounting courses, which can be |
| Students have also found to be 'mixing and matching' | | | | transferred to meet a full year of basic requirements |
| traditional and online courses. The reasons range from | | | | at the state's public universities, can be completed |
| lifestyle to accommodating job schedules to getting | | | | online. |
| enrolled for high demand courses. | | | | Some of the popular institutions offering online |
| The distinction between online and traditional | | | | courses include University of Phoenix, Capella |
| classroom courses is also blurring rapidly. Most | | | | University, DeVry University online, Walden University, |
| traditional classes now also use online components | | | | Kaplan University, ECPI, Ashworth College, Berkeley |
| including message boards, chat rooms and electronic | | | | College, Boston University Metropolitan College, |
| filing of papers. Lectures are available for download in | | | | Indiana Business College, Kennedy Western |
| the form of a video or a podcast. | | | | University, Cardean College and Penn State University. |
| Online learning courses are available at the | | | | Recent surveys that highlight the difference in |
| undergraduate, masters and the doctorate levels. | | | | income between college and high school graduates |
| Some of the most popular online courses include | | | | have resulted in an increasing number of people |
| Business and Management, Human Service, Health | | | | enrolling for college education and online courses have |
| care, Communication, Information Technology, Public | | | | made it all the more easier for them to do so. |