very year make up a larger proportion of the college population, have busy schedules to juggle with family responsibilities and demanding careers. Speaking about this group of adult learners, Kathy McGuire, the director of Distance Learning at the U.C.L.A. Extension, a continuing education program affiliated with the University of California in Los Angeles, explained, "They’re not going to stop learning, but they’re not going to want to drive all over the place to do it" (Newman). The appeal of using the Internet to pursue an education is its flexibility and convenience. Right now, about 26,000 courses online teach approximately 750,000 students (McQueen). But is a seat in front of a computer as good as a seat in a college classroom? According to a report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, colleges still lack enough knowledge about Internet-based education to justify its rapid growth (McQueen). Ed Neal, the director of Faculty Development in the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, noted a difference between adult learners, who form the traditional market for distance education, and adolescent learners. These two groups differ in motivation, purpose, learning styles and preferences, and intellectual skills (Neal). A web site at Western Governor’s University (http://www.wgu.edu) includes a "self-assessment quiz" that is very instructive in this matter. After taking the quiz of multiple choice questions, an explanation of the implications of different responses are displayed. Some comments warn that "if face-to-face interaction is very important to you, think carefully before enrolling in a distance-delivered class," and "because you won't be sitting in a classroom on a regular basis and won't have your instructor or classmates nearby to remind you of assignments, you must be fairly self-directed and conscientious about completing assignments to suc...
