Associate online degree programs | Indiana reports a rise in online enrollment

Posted by bposton on November 29th, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

Indiana is reporting a rise in online enrollments at the colleges and universities in the state.

First we’ll take Perdue.

Dennis McElhoe, Purdue’s director of continuing education and conferencing, said Purdue began offering online courses in the 1999-00 academic school year with two enrolled students. Now, more than 4,700 students are enrolled in the courses.

Next, there’s Indiana U.

Indiana University had 40 graduate-level online courses in the school of education during the 2005-06 academic school year, the coordinator of student and course support reported. The number of students enrolled were not counted.

The university had 83 undergradate online courses and 44 high school online courses as well.

Last year, 1,917 Indiana undergraduates were enrolled in the courses, compared to 1,734 the previous academic school year.

So, even more evidence that online education is surging.

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engineering degree online : “Vocational Training” makes a comeback

Posted by bposton on October 22nd, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

Here’s an interesting news story:

It appears that career technical training - it used to be called “vocational training” - is experiencing a comeback in the U.S.

How do I know? Well, I’ve got the stats to prove it…straight from the good ‘ol Department of Education.

They report that enrollment in technical education soared by 57 percent - from 9.6 million students in 1999 to 15.1 million in 2004.

Why is this happening?

Here’s what Darrel Luzzo, president of the National Career Development Association had to say:

“American career technical education is being redefined because the needs of the evolving US and world economies are changing,” says Darrell Luzzo, incoming president of the National Career Development Association. “Educators at all levels are recognizing that the world’s employers increasingly need skill sets that the conventional four-year college degree doesn’t give.”

And by “skill sets” , they’re not talking about wood shop, metal shop, machining - the old vocational stuff.

“We are redefining almost everything that has to do with the intersection of new technology and the global economy,” says Mark Whitlock, CEO of Central Educational Center in Newnan, Ga., a charter school. “The economy is changing and therefore education has to continue to change.”

The types of things that are being studied today include much more hi-tech areas like:
crime forensics
composite-plastic fuselage design
robotics
nanotechnology
radiological diagnostics
3-D animation
and a pretty fast growing field called “industrial maintenance technology” (keeping all those high-tech machines in today’s companies up and running).

Here’s a cute quote that sums it up for me…

“When a light-sensor toilet doesn’t function anymore, who ya gonna call? Not a regular plumber, you need someone who knows how to program computers.” That comes from Bill Murphy, a recruiter for the McMurry Regional Training Center in Casper, Wyo.

 Ben

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