Technology Trends in Higher Education

Technology has had a great deal of influence on education. Over 1.6 million school students (specifically community college students) enrolled in a minumum of one online course during the fall of 2002 and over one-third of these very same students took all their courses on the internet. With these numbers in place and the continuing growth of student population, technology in education is now the alternative for several higher education institutions.

With such an explosion of demand and growth, the use of technology has not always been positive. Problems have plagued the usage of technology in higher education courses throughout the country. Many people within the system see five big trends that will influence the potential for technology/distance learning. Listed below are a list these present trends in higher education:

• Growing population of pupils enrolling combined with inadequate infrastructure (faculty, administration, buildings, etc..)
• Changing pupil needs (insufficient time and need for flexibility are foremost)
• Instruction altered to more student centered, non-linear, and self-directed (required in order to meet the diverse academic needs of pupils)
• Necessity of lifelong learning classes
• Knowledge and competency of students in the usage of the Internet

All of these tendencies can be tracked back to space learning. Higher education institutions will need to take action today, so as to enhance their distance education applications.

There are methods by which colleges can meet the current tendencies through distance education. One way is to provide more aid through Student Services. By encouraging the use to of help desks at colleges, students are going to have their needs assessed and met. Some campuses have found the creation of a centralized website for the college to be beneficial.

The web site has given future and current students access to information quickly. All these boards/consortiums have provided support, financial sources, evaluation procedures, and the formation of clear missions for distance learning instruction classes throughout the states. All of these efforts work toward the objective of implementing legitimate distance learning applications.

The secret to the future of education is online distance education, but only as long as continued research and the development of quality applications persist. By examining current trends, campuses will be more equipped to satisfy the needs of the student.