Never before has it been possible for so many people to get a college degree while maintaining their commitments to job and families.

Adult students no longer face problems they used to face when trying to complete their degrees.   With the new distance education option available to adult students, living and working a distance from the school campus, commuting back and forth to classes in rush hour traffic, sitting in irrelevant classes hours on end merely doing time, competing with much younger students, and trying to fit the schools arbitrary schedule into your own are completedly resolved through more flexible education programs. 

The trend in higher education is to focus more on the needs of the students, particularly those whose lives make it impossible to attend conventional classes. Hundreds of fully accredited colleges and universities across America are developing flexible programs where the needs of the student rather than the needs of the institution are primary.

Correspondence study has been offered by colleges and universities for more than 100 years. The University of Wisconsin offered its first correspondence course via pony express mail in 1891! A June 1998 report released by Coopers & Lybrand LLP in Boston, said that the education industry "may be on the verge of a transformation similar to what has occurred in the health care industry over the past decade." Leading colleges and universities are already investing in technology-such as instructional software-that will transform the way educational services are packaged, delivered, accessed and measured, it noted.

Nearly half of all U.S. colleges and universities now offer classes taught outside a traditional classroom, by audio, video or over the Internet, according to a new Department of Education study.

Between 1995 and 1998, the number of universities offering ``distance learning'' classes increased by one-third. In 1998, they were offered by over 79 percent of public four-year universities.

A new study at the California State University at Northridge reveals students learning in a virtual classroom tested 20 percent better across the board than their counterparts who learned in a traditional classroom (CNET News, January 17, 1998).

Today’s student has access to many more tools, both at work and at home, that can richly enhance the learning experience. 1 in 6 adults now have a computer. Most others have access to one at their local library or at work. Videocassette recorders are ubiquitous. Nearly 80% of homes subscribe to cable TV or have a satellite hook-up.

A recent study by the U.S. Commerce Department shows that PC ownership among all Americans grew by 52% between 1994 and 1997, with a penetration of 36.6% of U.S. households. According to Computer World Magazine (Oct. ’96) the percentage of U.S. on-line users 16 and older was 21.5% in May, 1996. That number has exploded to 103 million people who are hooked-up to the Internet in the U.S. alone, according to a report issued in the July 2, 1998 edition of Investor’s Business Daily!

According to PR Newswire, July 21, 1998, "Approximately seven million adult learners are giving new meaning to the phrase ‘going to college’, they're having the college come to them."

In its second survey of distance-education programs, the U.S. Department of Education has found that their number increased by 72 percent, to 1,190, from 1995 to 1998. In 1998, 44 percent of higher-education institutions offered distance-education courses, up from 33 percent in 1995. In fact, 1.6 million students are enrolled in at least one course using distance education.

The survey found that 1,680 institutions offered a total of about 54,000 online-education courses in 1998, with 1.6 million students enrolled. That means that one of every 8 college students is utilizing distance education in their college quest.

Classes are widely available by internet, videotape, audiotape, live lectures via interactive TV, or networking by means of satellite video conferencing,. With the advent of personal fax machines much of the paper trail of homework can be handled without leaving your living room or office. It is even possible to earn your MBA without ever setting foot on the school campus.

The advantages are obvious. The students can maintain their lifestyle commitments while furthering their education. Not only that, but the studies indicate the distance learner is more highly motivated , often resulting in a deeper level of understanding of the material than those bound to the desktop model of education.

Rather than awarding a degree for time spent in class, the campus-free student is awarded for competency and performance skills.

Rather than awarding a degree based on an authoritative model with prescribed curricula, the campus-free student cultivates independence and self-motivation, skills essential for career success.

Rather than awarding a degree based on the mastery of specific course content, the campus-free student is rewarded for learning how to learn.

Rather than focus on education ending at age 22, the campus-free student is encouraged to enter into a lifetime of accredited education.

Rather than limiting the learning resource to a textbook and classroom setting, the campus-free student learns using a wide variety of media better suiting our modern lifestyles.

Rather than ignoring the student’s prior experience in real-life learning, the campus-free student is rewarded for those experiences as they have application in the educational arena.