The growing popularity of distance learning around the world—where students take college courses online, via seminar or correspondence class—is leading Seventh-day Adventist educational leaders to consider how to best take advantage of such programs.

The demand is growing. Enrollment in distance education courses has nearly doubled since 1995, with more than half—56 percent—of two- and four-year degree-granting institutions offering distance education courses in the 2000-2001 academic year in the United States.

Such figures support the claim that more college classes are taken online in the United States, than in the classroom, according to Dr. Joseph E. Gurubatham, president of Home Study International, a Seventh-day Adventist distance learning institution based in Silver Spring, Maryland.

On the other side of the continent, Bob Paulson, assistant professor of exercise science, health and nutrition at Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, says his informal survey reveals nearly 40 percent of this year’s graduates took a distance learning course en route to graduation. “My guess is that it was only about 10 percent three years ago,” says Paulson. “There’s been a significant change in the way people go after their education.”

Both Gurubatham and Paulson believe this trend of the last few years is only going to increase.

If Adventist colleges are going to keep up with demand, they need to offer these courses and work together while doing it, says Paulson. “If we would learn to play well together we could work well as a system. We would reach a point where tuition wouldn’t cost US$20,000 a year.

“I think times have changed significantly, the values parents and students have,” he adds. “It will continue to change. Unless we find ways to change, we are destined for rough road ahead.”

A need filled by distance learning, Paulson says, is that students sometimes have to be creative in their scheduling to graduate in four years.

“And [some students] would rather take it on their own time,” says Gurubatham. The busiest time for computer networks on college campuses is 1 a.m., he says.

The advantage is that it teaches students to incorporate coursework into their own schedule, helping them to manage their lives. However, the personal values of a teacher exemplified in the classroom cannot be replaced. “There are ways to compensate,” says Gurubatham, “but it’s never the same.”

Paulson says he takes precautions to guard against cheating. He has Web-enhanced all his classes. Everything is turned in electronically—students send their work as an e-mail attachment through www.turnitin.com. If a student plagiarizes, the system highlights the sentence and turns it into a link informing the professor where the student got it.

He says schools need to get used to providing more online classes. “This generation does talk this way—they’re very comfortable,” says Paulson. “Everyone is required to participate. Not only is the frequency of discussion increased, but the quality of the discussion is increased.”

Paulson says students have time to think about what they’re going to say, versus a live class where many won’t participate, and some will wish they can take back what they’ve said on the spur of the moment.

His survey was given to 180 graduating seniors, 121 of whom turned in the survey. Of this group, 37 percent took at least one class online en route to graduation. “That [percentage] is going to go nowhere but up,” says Paulson.

Between the ages of 18 to 24, 36 percent of students took a class online. For ages 23 to 25 that figure was 47 percent. “That’s almost half,” says Paulson.

Of the 45 that did take an online class, 25 were not from an Adventist school. Eighty percent of respondents said they would take a class online from another Adventist college.

An Adventist distance education Web site was launched in April to list available online classes from Adventist colleges: www.sdaedu.org.

Distance education collaboration between schools is one of the priorities of the recently created Association of Adventist Colleges and Universities. Its president, Richard Osborn, president of Pacific Union College, says there are many advantages to distance learning. Since instructors have to keep track of each student’s progress there tends to be more personalized attention.

Paulson admits, “For some classes it doesn’t work, and for some students it doesn’t work. You need to be self-motivated. I know we’ll never replace the face-to-face class—we’ll always have it.”

In 1909, Adventist educator Frederick Griggs began what is today HSI with the original goal of providing an education for those unable to attend traditional schools. Today, HSI and its Griggs University component offer many distance learning alternatives, including online courses.