I read an interesting press release from Eduventures today concerning online courses. It caught my attention because of our initiatives on campus to increase online degree possibilities plus the on-going effort to increase courses available online over the past couple of years. I am trying to keep my eye on this trend and to consistently monitor and continue to learn about the effects on library services that it will have.
According the the Eduventures report, the total number of students enrolled in online courses has grown to more than 1.5 million (8.6% of all higher education students in the U.S.) and this will grow to 11.5% in 2008. More than one-third of them live within a 50-mile radius of the school sponsoring the courses in which they are enrolled.
If these kinds of statistics hold true we have some hard work ahead of us here in the Fleece Library. We already have as our goal for this year to evaluate our library services to distance students and find ways to not only improve what we already do but also increase our services. There are a number of ways we can do this, but we have to evaluate the cost in personnel as well as budget in order to see what we can afford to do even if we get no increase in budget or personnel. Our challenge is cut out for us!
If any of those 11.5% of students enrolled in online courses next year come to our courses at CIU the Fleece Library staff will definitely have their hands full. But we are planning to be ready to meet the challenge.
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