eLearning solutions

Gone are the days when having a distance education program was an option or luxury. Consider these facts: The Sloan Foundation reports that 2.3 million US students are taking distance-learning courses. Over 85% of colleges already offer online courses. Online learning is growing at a rate of over 30% per year.

According to Keith Hampson, Director of Distance Education at Ryerson University (16,500 online enrollments), “Today’s students demand it. The most common complaint I get from students is not about the quality of our online courses; it’s ‘when are you going to offer more online courses?’”

Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Columbia and Cornell, as well as Penn State, Boston Univ., Villanova, Purdue, McGill, Syracuse, Texas, and Univ. of Maryland are all investing in distance education. Why are such prestigious institutions committing major resources to online education? Simple. Because demand is exploding. Demand is also accelerating at community colleges and career colleges, as the need for skilled workers explodes.

A U.S. Department of Labor report states that 80% of jobs in 2010 do not exist today. How will these new skills be learned? When you consider that over 95% of teenagers are online and many of these students prefer virtual learning to traditional learning, it’s undeniable that a significant part of the future of education is online. Many of these students will look to online options first as they continue their education.

With the market for online higher education expected to exceed $69 billion by 2015, it’s no longer a question of if you should add eLearning to your curricula, but when.

Why distance education?

According to a recent USA Today survey, the top reason students give for taking courses online are:

More convenient for my schedule (96%)
I can work at my own pace (77%)
I like to learn on my own (70%)

Due to accelerating demand, the quality of online courses is now on par with offline classes. In fact, the overwhelming majority of academic studies prove that online courses produce better educational outcomes than traditional classroom learning. Furthermore, retention in online courses is up to 50% higher than traditional classroom courses. Online students cost less to acquire, less to enroll, less to educate, less to retain and less to graduate, plus are more likely to continue their education.

What programs are best to offer?

The array of courses today being offered online is almost as vast as what’s available offline. Even subjects few imagined could be taught online such as Exercise Science and Personal Training now have thriving online programs. There’s even an online law school!

Online courses save money. There’s less need for classroom space and support staff, and there’s often economies with faculty. To take advantage of these savings, some schools offer the entire course online. Other schools conserve resources by requiring all students to take their general-ed courses such as English, Math and Sciences, online. Other schools offer “hybrid” online courses, where a part of the course is taught online and the rest in the classroom. This is also a common way to “test the waters” of web-based learning.

United States Congress gives its blessing

Online learning got a significant boost on April 1, 2006 when Congress passed legislation removing the so-called "50-percent rule," which required schools to deliver at least half of their courses face-to-face to qualify for federal student aid. The change reflects the growing importance of virtual instruction as a means of reaching today's students, especially busy professionals who don't have time for—or easy access to—campus-based instruction.

Here’s what you need to know

If you’re considering starting a distance education program or even offering hybrid online courses, here are your options. You can either make the time and financial investment to run your online program in-house, or you can elect to outsource part or all of your eLearning program, such as the technology, the courses, the instructors, etc.

To do it yourself requires knowledge of online curricula, faculty development, technology deployment, 24/7 technical help desk, student support services, online marketing and lead generation, and student retention. If you are not a specialist in developing online learning courses or programs, the learning curve can be steep and the investment in hardware, software, staff (and time) can be significant. Even if you finally get your online learning program up and running you will still need to support a uniquely skilled in-house IT group to keep it online and running reliably for 24 x 7 x 365, because even one half of 1% downtime is unacceptable.

Nevertheless, for some schools it makes sense to keep the entire program in-house. For other schools that may lack the resources or may not have hundreds of thousands of dollars available to launch a successful program, there are a number of outsource options available on a fee-per-user or pay-as-you-go basis.

The main components

All distance-learning programs include these components. It wasn’t true 10 years ago, but today you can outsource some or even all of these functions, and pay on a per-enrollment basis.

Where to start

Our Online Learning Self-Check self assessment questionnaire will help you make the right decisions regarding the next steps to take and how to get started in online education. It only takes a few minutes to complete. In return you will receive a written 10-Point Online Opportunities Analysis including recommendations on which courses to offer.

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what others say

"As a small, Catholic, specialty College, we chose EdTek Services because they have small college prices with accessible services. The company is willing to go the extra mile to help you implement and solve problems that arise.”

Dr. Rebecca Jones, Chancellor, West Suburban College of Nursing

“We were looking for a quality online learning platform with 24/7 technical support services that didn’t cost us a fortune. EdTek provides that for us and has met all of our expectations.”

Dr. Sue O'Donnell, Program Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management

“All the major eLearning providers have a heavy upfront cost. EdTek’s turn-key package of eCollege products and services gave us the top technology and support we needed and their fee-per-user pricing model eliminated risk.”

Ken Westray, President, NP Learning

"As a small non-profit tasked with providing a state mandated training curriculum, we needed an easy way to deliver the training. With Maine being such a large state and with the economy as it is, we needed a way to provide the training without incurring large travel costs - we needed a hybrid product that would enable us to continue live classes and allow for distance learning too.

The online option seemed like a no-brainer; we searched far and wide for many ways to provide this ‘hybrid option’ while keeping our costs at a minimum. There appeared to be so many online sites that offered eLearning products; however, most had upfront (startup) costs that were substantial considering there was little assistance and or room for growth - until we found EdTek Services that is!

They were able to provide us with a great turnkey package of products and services that fit our needs - and within our budget! Their product is able to grow as we do, the platform is always the most current, the training for instructors is very good and useful, and the 24/7 Help Desk for students and instructors is just the cherry on top! The knowledgeable tech and client services consultant support has been unparalleled with their ability to help us brand our site, implement it, and solve any problems that arose while loading content.

I recommend this fast, easy and affordable eLearning solution to anyone looking for an online learning system!"

Taanya Pillsbury, Training Technology Specialist, Behavioral Health Sciences Institute

"The support I get from EdTek is phenomenal: their staff are personable, flexible, and eager to help. They treat me like a teammate, and we solve problems together. We have an ongoing working relationship, the product of which is a great service that we can offer to our students."

Jeff Wheeldon, Associate Registrar for Distance Education, Providence University College and Theological Seminary

"EdTek has been an invaluable partner to us as we expand our online programs. The team at EdTek provided us with solid counsel as well as the technology and services we needed to get our online degree programs off the ground. EdTek was willing to take the time and care to help us grow the way that best suited our institution."

Jonathan Small, Director of Online Programs, Bay State College

“I had used three online learning management systems before EdTek introduced our team to their LMS. What a breath of fresh air! I had become accustomed to an academic look-and-feel and unhelpful help desks when what I needed was a more corporate adult learning look-and-feel and an LMS that is responsive to my needs. For example, for 15 years I have asked other systems to provide me with notification of learner posts to bulletin boards, and this feature never appeared. I’ve only used EdTek's LMS for six months now, and they have already committed to delivering this feature! I call that excellent customer focus. Thanks EdTek for meeting my needs for online learning.”

Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D., Managing Director for Research and Development, Center for Applied Cognitive Studies