University demands online study

Next year's freshers will have to do some study online

Students at a university in the United States are to be enticed away from the classroom in favour of studying online.

From next autumn, freshers enrolling at the Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in New Jersey will be required to sit a least one course on the internet.

University authorities, which approved the idea last month, claim they will be the first college or university to implement such a requirement.

Distance learning can be as effective as classroom instruction

J Michael Adams, University President

Up to $5m will be spent on developing new software and upgrading the existing network.

"If we are preparing global citizens, we believe that our graduates must be facile with the internet," said J Michael Adams, President of the university.

"Distance learning, when it's done right, can be as effective as classroom instruction.

"It's neither better nor worse. It's just different," he added.

About 160 of some 9,000 students at FDU are currently signed up on 35 courses available online.

Over the next four years, the university plans to increase the number of online courses to 50 or 60 , as future students fulfill the requirement to take up some studies on the web.

Critics of the scheme have warned that not all students are attracted to working online and that not all subjects lend themselves to distance learning.

There is also concern that students will miss out on talking face-to-face with lecturers after tutorials and on socialising with their peers.