Monday, November 13, 2006 - 10:50 AM
39-4

Distance Education Technologies and the Returning or Non-Traditional Student--Are They Like Oil and Water?.

Heather A. Miller, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Office of Continuing Education, Champaign, IL 61822

More students are falling into the category of the “non-traditional” or “return learner”  and those numbers continue to grow rapidly. Two-year and four-year institutions have jumped on the bandwagon, offering new programming to those wanting to come back to school to advance, change careers, or for professional development and certificate sequences. These programs are often delivered via distance technologies that can be “foreign” to returning or non-traditional students. Simply navigating the World Wide Web can be a challenge for some just to be able to register for courses in various intricate college or university websites. What is being done to make the transition to technology use in the classroom easier for the non-traditional student?  How are institutions making it easier to take an online course even on a “dialup” connection? How does videoconferencing play a role in delivering a course?  Can the non-traditional student easily navigate a degree program that is online or contain blended courses? These and other related questions will be covered during this session with examples.