Online U

Attorney Bob Diotalevi woke up on a recent Sunday morning, and as he got ready for church with his wife and son, he turned on his computer at 6 a.m. Diotalevi, a Florida Gulf Coast University associate professor, opened an e-mail sent three hours earlier that asked, simply, “Dr. D. I’m online. Where are you?”

“People think I’m up all night online,” says Diotalevi, program coordinator of the school’s legal studies program, which has about 200 students taking online courses.

Today’s 24/7 learning environment offers the convenience and flexibility that students in Southwest Florida and beyond are demanding from higher education institutions. Schools in the region have seen explosive enrollment growth in online courses and degrees, particularly in the past couple of years.

“Individuals want to go back to school and retrain themselves and look for other opportunities if they happen to be unemployed,” says Peter T. Van Leeuwen, director of distance education at Naples-based Hodges University. “[If employed] they just want to better themselves as far as making themselves available for advancement in their current positions.”

Night classes used to be the primary option for workers seeking to further their education or gain a degree in a more promising career field or for traditional students juggling a job and school. Online courses are a better alternative for many people.

“You don’t have to try to get time off,” says Mary Myers, dean of Edison Online. “You can do it at your own time and at your own pace.”

And in your pajamas, as some infomercials are quick to point out. Student Susan Coleman, a Jacksonville paralegal who expects to complete her bachelor’s degree in legal studies online in December, admits she’s gone from the bed to the computer for late-night learning.

“It works better for me because I can do it pretty much at my convenience,” she says. “I can get up at 2 o’clock in the morning and do assignments, or I can stay up late. The good thing, too, is if you have one of those nights you can’t sleep and you’re lying in bed, you’re like, ‘Hey, I might as well get up and do some work.’”

Legal studies, business administration, criminal justice, information systems management, accounting and allied health fields are programs that keep filling online classes, school officials say. In FGCU’s online legal studies degree program, for example, Diotalevi started with three students; now the program has more than 200, some from as far away as Germany.

“I’ve seen a lot more movement toward those as people look at those areas as most resilient,” says Eric Whitehouse, campus director at Rasmussen College.