Studying in America without leaving home has become an exciting reality for many students around the world. On-line education has emerged as an option for students unable to afford the expense of travelling overseas. There are no residency forms or visas to worry about. A student from London, Brussels or Paris is on the same footing as a student from New York, Los Angeles or Denver.

This is anytime, anywhere education. It allows students to enrol in courses, interact with faculty and fellow students, and receive a quality educational experience while remaining at home. Plus, on-line education places the student at the center of the educational experience. Enrollment, advising, financial aid, forms, processes, courses, faculty and other education services come to them. In other words, on-line education is about students and not educational institutions.

Another advantage to on-line education is the consumer-friendly, accessible atmosphere afforded by technology. With a single word search, a student can find the description of the course. With the click of a button, they can register, and with a little more mouse action, they can contact a career counsellor, academic advisor, faculty member, dean and even a president. Further, the Internet classes are far from sterile. Multimedia simulations enhance the student's learning, particularly when students can control the information flow and investigate the avenues they choose. Technology provides 'high tech and high touch' opportunities as well. Generally, host institutions structure their technology to allow students to hold on-line discussions with colleagues, instructors and advisors.

An important question, of course, is why a community college?

American community colleges- two-year institutions offering degree and certificate programs in a myriad of academic and occupational areas - have emerged as the starting point for a vast number of students planning a four-year education. Traditional community colleges are close to home, affordable, and focus on the needs of the student. The same can be said of on-line community colleges.

For a student who is outside the US, but who is hoping to pursue an American education, unable to actually travel to the US, beginning at an American community college on-line is an ideal way to determine their comfort level with the style of American education. At the same time, it's quite affordable. On-line education makes borders and geography meaningless. For example, Colorado Community College On-Line charges the same tuition rate regardless of where a student lives. Someone living a mile from the host site or in rural Scotland pays the same tuition.

Consider too that many American community colleges on-line have transfer agreements with four-year colleges and universities, allowing students to complete their entire four-year degree entirely on the Internet. This kind of seamless educational web will continue to expand in the coming years, making on-line education increasingly more popular, and in many cases the accepted choice among those individuals with multiple responsibilities of work and family. In fact, a large segment of students already enrolled in on-line courses are working adults with families. The opportunity to study and learn at the computer in their own time and place is a windfall for these students. Again, it is a matter of the student being in control of the educational process, and the institution recognizing that the student is the most important person in that process.

Naturally, studying on-line is not the same as studying abroad. For those students with time, money and few responsibilities, travelling overseas for their education is still a great life-affirming adventure. However, for the majority of students who do not have the kind of resources required for an extensive stay in a foreign land, on-line courses open up a new world of possibilities. The on-line classroom is a connection to that world, and on-line students share their learning experiences with students from all over the globe.

Although it is a cliché to frame discussions around the millennium, in truth today's on-line learner is studying in an environment that will quite likely be the standard of the 21st century. Colleges will become information producers, and the movement of students between countries and institutions will be as easy as clicking a cursor on an icon. Colleges won't care about a person's residency, and a person won't have to worry about how and when they get to class; class will come to them.

The future classroom is here today, and today's on-line education is truly a global education experience. America's community colleges have pioneered this shift in higher education, and for good reason: philosophically, they are geared to students, and by design they are accessible and affordable. Students wanting to access American education have to look no further than their own computers.

Author
Dr Mary Beth Susman
President
Colorado Electronic Community College